The Divine Honeymoon
by Nanenna
Summary: Sans is married, now he has to deal with this new life he's suddenly leading and all the changes happening all at once. With his brother's support and a loving husband at his side he's got this, no problem. After all, what could possibly go wrong? Direct sequel to The Divine Arrangement, I recommend reading that first. Contains Mpreg.
1. The Morning After

Really and truly, this is a direct sequel to _The Divine Arrangement_, and while I trust your ability to figure out who these characters are and what's going on if you want to just pick this up and go, it really will make more sense if you read that first.

For those that are returning: slight hike in rating: a little bit of swearing, a little bit more making out, surprisingly fewer death threats. Get strapped in, this one's a bit slower paced so the ride's gonna be a bit longer, but boy does it ever have a fun climax.

* * *

Papyrus was normally a very punctual person, he refused to disappoint someone by being late. So he would like to say he went to the temple bright and early! Except he knew how pointless that would be. If Sans really had stayed up until dawn he would likely be sleeping until after noon, and even if Sans had fallen asleep before dawn he wasn't one to pass up an opportunity to laze about. Papyrus didn't see the point in standing around for several hours while Sans took one of his extended naps. Thus it wasn't until early afternoon that Papyrus arrived at the temple.

He did think it was strange there was no priest stationed at the entrance to the outer court, but shrugged and entered it anyway. There were already quite a few people gathered in the outer court, and though Papyrus knew he was allowed to simply enter through living quarters he thought it was best to see what news those gathered already had before just barging past them all. He tapped the shoulder of one of the onlookers.

"EXCUSE ME, I'VE ONLY JUST ARRIVED, WHAT'S THE NEWEST NEWS?"

The other monster shrugged, "No idea. Something seems to be going on, though."

Papyrus thought that odd, he would think the priests would at least be reassuring everyone that Sans was alive and well after the way everyone had been panicking before he was chosen. "WELL THANK YOU ANYWAY." He strode past all the monsters milling around and up to the entrance, where a priest he didn't recognize was nervously waving people away.

"I'm sorry, the temple is closed today due to his Lordship's marriage." The priest said the word marriage strangely, like they didn't like the taste of it on their tongue. They smiled nervously at Papyrus as he didn't move.

"YES, I KNOW, I WAS THERE." He paused, unsure what to say next. "… IT WAS A LOVELY CEREMONY." That's what people said about weddings, right? And he supposed it was a lovely ceremony, all ceremonies were lovely.

"Oh, that's uh… that's nice. Thank you?"

They both stood there staring at each other, neither seeming to know what to say or do next.

Another priest, Papyrus recognized her as Gem, the earth elemental he had chatted with when Sans was first chosen, came running up and grabbed the first priest's arm to shake it with excitement. "Triplets!" she yelled excitedly before dashing back into the temple.

"WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?"

"No idea, everyone seems to be in too much of a rush to stop and tell me what's going on." The priest sighed heavily, drooping in on themself.

Papyrus leaned to his left a little, looking past the priest into the hallway. Gathered around the entrance to the inner court was a whole crowd of priests, all of them murmuring and jostling each other to look at something within the inner court that Papyrus couldn't see over their heads. He felt a tug on his sleeve.

One of the onlookers in the outer court had latched onto Papyrus's sleeve. "Say, aren't you related to the bride?"

"THE BRIDEGROOM. AND YES, I'M HIS BROTHER."

"Oh! That's why you were at the ceremony!" The priest looked relieved.

"What's the news? You must know something."

"I HAVEN'T BEEN INSIDE YET, I KNOW JUST AS MUCH AS EVERYONE ELSE. BUT I INTEND TO REMEDY THAT, SO IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME." He gently pried the onlooker's fingers form his sleeve, then strode past the entrance and into the hall. Soon he was at the edge of the crowd and tapped the shoulder of a priest impatiently trying to look over the others' heads. "EXCUSE ME, CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

The priest looked back, "Oh! You're the brother, right?"

"I DO HAVE A BROTHER, YES."

"Hey! It's the brother, let him through!" The priest latched onto the priest in front of them and shook for their attention. They looked back, took one look at Papyrus, then turned around and started jostling the other priests around them to move out of the way. This pattern continued, priests jostling each other to let Papyrus through, then eagerly crowding in behind him once he had moved forward even a step. Fortunately there was an area of empty space around the altar itself the gathered priests seemed hesitant to enter, the only exception being a few holding various items and one person who wasn't wearing priestly robes of any kind. All of them gathered around Sans.

He was sitting on the edge of the Eternal Fire's urn, half in the flame with his legs dangling limply over the lip, completely nude. Papyrus huffed and put his hands on his hips, so much for Sans saying he wasn't going to wander around bare boned. The lecture he was about to give died behind his teeth. He paused a little longer, further taking in his brother's appearance. The way he was covered skull to toe in soot, the hunched posture, the empty eyes. The pseudo-flesh that spanned from his ribs to his hips. There was Sans's usual sharp blue hue to the frosty looking flesh, but there was also a yellow glow shining softly from over his hips.

Triplets, Gem had said.

Oh.

Papyrus looked at all the priests gathered around, talking excitedly, the few brave enough to get near Sans touching his arms, his knee, anywhere they could get that wasn't too close to the fire. Papyrus firmed up his stance and opened his mouth.

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH. IF YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING USEFUL THEN YOU NEED TO LEAVE." Papyrus made shooing motions at the gathered priests. "GO ON, OUT OF THE INNER COURT. YOU'RE ALL BEING RIDICULOUS."

As if Papyrus's words had opened their eyes, the gathered crowd sheepishly started shuffling away. Even the priests who looked like they were trying to help looked unsure if they should stay or not. Papyrus turned to the one holding a pile of clothing and took the top layer off, he threw it over Sans's skull. Thankfully the fabric didn't catch fire as it settled over him.

Then Papyrus clapped the priest on the shoulder. "THANK YOU, THAT WAS MOST THOUGHTFUL. YOU SEEM LIKE SOMEONE WITH A GOOD HEAD ON YOUR SHOULDERS, SANS WILL NEED A BATH AND I NEED YOU TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN."

The priest preened with the praise, "I can make that happen."

"THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" As the priest left, Papyrus turned to the one holding a tray full of food and took it from them. "THANK YOU AS WELL, BUT IF MY BROTHER AND I COULD HAVE A MOMENT OF PRIVACY, PLEASE."

"Right, of course. Goodness, I don't think any of us were expecting this." They giggled, then went about helping to herd the rest of the priests out and away. That left only the person who wasn't a priest.

"I'M SORRY, I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE."

"That's alright, I'm Spookins, the midwife." Their button eyes had sparkled as they watched Papyrus take charge, the smile stitched on their fabric face growing all the wider.

Papyrus glanced down at Sans, who had pulled the cloth off his head and was currently holding it over his front, gripping it tightly. "I SUPPOSE HE NEEDS ONE NOW?"

"Yes, he's having triplets! I've never seen that before, it's completely unheard of in monsters."

"SANS IS ALWAYS FULL OF SURPRISES." And also babies, apparently. Sans will like that joke later, he'll have to remember it.

"Sans, right, no one saw fit to introduce us when I was first called here."

"AND I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SANS'S BROTHER!"

"It's very nice to meet you."

"VERY NICE," Papyrus agreed, he wasn't one to deny any monster his amazing presence. "AND AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU MORE, I'M AFRAID SANS MAY NEED A LITTLE TIME TO HIMSELF."

"Understandable, he's had quite the shock this morning, the poor fellow. For now there's not much to worry about, I'll be back later today to talk more about how to best care for himself and the little ones."

"THANK YOU, I'LL BE SURE TO BE THERE SO THERE'S AT LEAST ONE PERSON LISTENING."

Spookins chuckled, then gave a little wave before leaving.

The inner court fell silent, even the sound of the bonfire behind them seemed oddly quieter than even its usual oddly quiet crackles. Papyrus sat on the lip of the urn next to Sans and held up the tray towards him. When that didn't get a response he picked up something, it looked like leftovers from yesterday's feast and thus easily eaten with just their fingers, and held it up to Sans's teeth.

"YOU MUST BE HUNGRY, SANS, YOU SHOULD EAT." To Papyrus's relief a bite sized portion of the offered food turned to energy and disappeared into Sans's teeth. "THERE, SEE? ISN'T THAT A LITTLE BETTER?"

Sans nodded shallowly, his eyelights slowly lighting back up and trailing to Papyrus's face. Papyrus nudged the thing, a canapé he thinks it was called, up against Sans's teeth to encourage him to keep eating. To Papyrus's surprise and delight, Sans actually grabbed it with his own hand to finish.

"YOU'RE DOING SO WELL, SANS. I KNEW YOU WERE JUST A LITTLE OVERWHELMED." He picked up another item, a deep fried cheese ball of some kind, he tried not to wince, and offered it to Sans.

"Is it really true?!"

Papyrus looked up to see Fieri come rushing into the room, he stopped short just past the entryway and stared at them with wide eyes. The four visiting head priests were right behind him, Bonnie just barely managed not to barrel into him as they abruptly had to stop with him blocking the way.

"What's going on? Why did you just stop?!" She looked past him to see them sitting practically inside the Eternal flame, her eyes grew just as wide as Fieri's.

Sans shrank in on himself. Papyrus made an annoyed sound, then shifted the tray into Sans's lap. Sans absently accept it, along with the cheese ball Papyrus nudged into his hand. "DON'T WORRY, BROTHER, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO ANYONE UNTIL YOU'RE READY TO. JUST KEEP EATING AND I'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS." He stood then, placing himself between Sans and the priests. "GOOD MORNING, I HOPE YOU ALL SLEPT WELL."

"Quite well, thank you," Terry said as he sidled past the still dumbstruck Fieri and approached Papyrus. Bonnie followed after him. "We were told Sans was found inside the Eternal Flame this morning, is that true?"

"I DON'T KNOW, HE WAS ALREADY SITTING THERE WHEN I GOT HERE. AND I MUST SAY, I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THE STATE I FOUND HIM IN." Papyrus crossed his arms and leveled his most disappointed stare in Fieri's direction, hard to maintain when Sans's muffled guffaw made the corner of Papyrus's disappointed frown twitch. "REALLY NOW, I UNDERSTAND THAT BEING A PRIEST ISN'T LIKE BEING IN THE GUARD, BUT YOUR LACK OF CONTROL IS SIMPLY APPALLING."

Fieri sputtered, "**My** lack of control?"

"YOU WEREN'T UP WITH THE OTHERS TO KEEP THEM FROM CROWDING AND OVERWHELMING SANS THIS MORNING, I HAD TO CHASE THEM OUT MYSELF. AS THE HUSBAND OF THE GOD YOU SERVE YOU WOULD THINK MAKING SURE SANS WAS PROPERLY TAKEN CARE OF WOULD BE A HIGHER PRIORITY THAN LAZING ABOUT IN BED UNTIL WELL PAST NOON."

Terry and Bonnie both snorted and shot amused glances over their shoulders at Fieri, who was burning an embarrassed orange, the brightest Papyrus had ever seen him.

"WELL, IT'S TOO LATE TO CHANGE THE PAST NOW. AS HIS BROTHER IT SEEMS I'M BEST SUITED TO MAKE SURE HE'S TAKEN CARE OF…"

"i'm the older one," Sans quietly muttered.

"AND TO START WITH, HE'S CLEARLY IN NEED OF A BATH. SO IF HE'S FINISHED EATING," Papyrus glanced back to see more than half the food missing from the tray, which was enough to satisfy him, "WE'LL BE TAKING OUR LEAVE NOW."

"Now hold on," Fieri said indignantly, face still a blotchy orange, "we have some questions that need answering."

"AND THEY WILL KEEP. SANS, THE BABIES, AND YOU ALL WILL STILL BE HERE AFTER A BATH."

"So that part's true?" Bonnie said, a wide grin growing across her face.

"THERE WAS A MIDWIFE BY THE NAME OF SPOOKINS HERE EARLIER, I'M SURE THEY CAN EXPLAIN IT ALL MUCH BETTER THAN I CAN. NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME." Papyrus turned back to Sans and took the tray from his lap, then stood there, unsure what to do with it.

"Here, hun, I'll take care of that for you." Bonnie stepped up to Papyrus and held her paws out for the tray.

"THANK YOU, BONNIE, THAT IS VERY KIND OF YOU." He handed the tray over, then scooped Sans up.

"i can walk, y'know," Sans protested grumpily as Papyrus adjusted his grip.

"CAN YOU REALLY?" Papyrus asked pointedly.

A blush spread over Sans's face as he looked away.

"I THOUGHT SO. NOW, WHICH WAY TO THE BATH?" Somehow in all his visits that had never come up.

"I can lead the way," Terry offered. Ignis and Geoli, the other two visiting head priests, gently maneuvered Fieri out of the entryway so the brothers could leave the inner court behind them. For now, at least. Papyrus had a feeling Sans was going to be spending much more time there than they had originally suspected. But those were thoughts for later. For now, they had a bath to get to!

* * *

AN: Ah ha ha ha hah! We finally get to see some of the jokes and plot I was chomping at the bit for all of Arrangement! Anyway, remember how we last left our lovely OTP? There's only one way to make a baby (or three), they definitely had a lot of fun. On Grillby's altar. Fieri would probably have a heart attack if he ever put two and two together. XD But I'm so glad I got a chance to write Paps being a wonderful bro and being there for Sans, they love each other so much. Plus it's fun writing Paps being assertive and steamrolling someone over with his care and concern. You know you did really badly if Paps is disappointed in you.


	2. More Like Afternoon After Really

Terry led Papyrus, still carrying Sans, out of the temple and into the living area tucked away behind it. Sans could see Terry's wispy little tail wagging for the entire trip. He wasn't sure why Terry was so happy, or any of the rest of the priests really, but at the very least Sans didn't have to deal with that yet. He thanked his every lucky star that Papyrus was there and helping him, that he understood.

The priest Papyrus had sent to get the bath ready was waiting for them just outside the door, Sans thinks he recognizes them as one of the priests that came with Ignis, but he couldn't remember their name at the moment. They looked relieved when they saw the group approaching.

"There you are, I was worried something had happened. I got the bath all cleared out and filled with fresh water. There's also a fresh change of clothes, a couple towels, soap, everything you need for a bath." The priest smiled up at them, clearly proud of themself.

Terry patted their arm, "Excellent work."

"YES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH."

The priest held open the door for them. Papyrus gave a nod before heading in.

"I'm sure the others and I will have much to discuss," Terry said from the doorway. "We'll likely be in the archive or out in the courtyard. When he's ready to talk you can come to us or send someone to fetch us. Enjoy your bath." He gave a friendly wave before leaving.

"And I'll just be out here to keep the others out and in case you need me. Good luck. No wait… have fun. Ah! I mean…" The priest stuttered and looked panicked.

"WE WILL, AND AGAIN: THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU'VE BEEN MOST HELPFUL."

"You're welcome." The priest positively beamed before shutting the door, finally leaving Sans and Papyrus to their privacy.

Papyrus paused just inside the steamy room, Sans realized he'd probably never been in it before. Off to the side were a couple tubs for people who didn't want to or couldn't use the main bath for whatever reason, the opposite wall taken up by a shelf along it and baskets underneath. Sitting prominently in the middle of the shelf were the things the priest had said they'd put in the room for them. Taking up the middle of the room was a round depression cut into the floor, filled with faintly steaming water.

Papyrus strode over to the edge of the pool. "DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND?"

Sans nodded, then realized that probably wasn't enough of an answer. "yeah, pretty sure."

"NOT TO WORRY, I'M HERE TO CATCH YOU IF YOU FALL."

"thanks, bro."

Papyrus carefully lowered Sans to the ground, one arm staying at his back for support while the one that had been holding his legs transferred to hold his arm. Sans would have been annoyed at the coddling if it weren't for the way his legs wobbled dangerously. Once he had his legs firmly underneath him, he stepped into the warm water, the robe he had been clinging to dropped in a puddle of bright color next to the pool. Papyrus's support never wavered as Sans lowered himself to sit down. When the water reached his belly he hissed and clung to Papyrus in an attempt to pull himself back out.

"WHAT IS IT? WHAT'S WRONG?"

"sorry, the water's just a bit on the chilly side."

Papyrus glanced down at the water and the steam gently wafting over it. "THEN… WE'LL JUST HAVE TO GET ALL THAT SOOT OFF YOU QUICKLY."

Sans nodded, it wasn't that cold, he had just expected steaming water to be a bit warmer. He settled on the ledge carved into the pool. Once Papyrus was sure he was stable, he ran over to where the things were left. Sans idly watched the soot clinging to him start to float away in the water as he listened to the sounds of fabric shifting and the occasional clang of metal. Then Papyrus was back, a folded towel dropped on the floor next to the pool. Sans glanced up to see most of his brother's armor had been removed, most noticeably the breastplate, his gloves, and his boots. Papyrus was kneeling on the towel, soap in one hand and washcloth in the other. Sans turned back around, leaning against the lip of the pool. He closed his eyes and relaxed as Papyrus started washing him.

The silence was nice. Soothing after the hectic morning Sans had just had. How long had it even been? It felt like hours even if he was pretty sure it hadn't been more than one.

Sans groaned and covered his now clean face with his hands. "holy fuck."

"I'D RATHER NOT HEAR ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE, BROTHER."

"oh my god!"

"WE KNOW EXACTLY WHICH GOD IS YOURS," Papyrus replied cheerfully.

Sans's hands dropped back into the water, he couldn't help laughing at that. It was a bit thin and watery, but it still felt good to laugh.

"ARE YOU READY TO TALK ABOUT IT NOW?"

"thought you didn't want to hear about my love life?" Sans couldn't help teasing back, a genuine grin spreading across his face.

Papyrus sighed, "I'M GLAD YOU'RE FEELING BETTER, SANS, BUT I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU. IS THIS," Papyrus motioned over Sans, "REALLY WHAT YOU WANT?"

"i mean, i guess? it's all happening a bit fast, i haven't really had a chance to stop and think yet."

"WHAT HAPPENED TO WAITING FOR GRILLBY?"

"oh, right, you don't know about that yet. lord fiersome is grillby."

The washcloth fell into the water. Sans grabbed it and held it back up for Papyrus, water dripping off it and splattering both the towel he was kneeling on as well as his pants.

"HE'S WHAT?!"

"turns out grillby is just a disguise he'd put on to interact with us mortals. so uh… it's all good. no waiting necessary." Sans jiggled his free hand in a bit of showmanship, the other one still holding the soggy cloth up for Papyrus. He turned around when he heard a wet clack, finding Papyrus's face buried firmly in a still dripping palm. "you okay there, bro?"

"I'M FINE, JUST FINE." He snatched the wash cloth and dipped it back in the water before wringing it out and applying more soap. "I SUPPOSE THAT WOULD EXPLAIN WHY YOU OF ALL PEOPLE WERE CHOSEN."

"wow, nice to know you think so highly of me."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I…" Papyrus took a deep breath. "I'M SORRY, BROTHER, THAT WASN'T A VERY NICE THING TO SAY."

"it's okay, really. i get it. neither of us expected to get that arrow over the door."

"YES! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT! BUT ALSO THIS CONVERSATION IS GOING OFF IN THE WRONG DIRECTION BECAUSE IT'S ALSO NOT WHAT I MEANT AT ALL. EVEN IF THE THINGS WE ARE TALKING ABOUT ARE ALSO IMPORTANT. SO SANS, TELL ME IN ALL HONESTY AND CONFIDENCE, IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?"

"he didn't force me, if that's what you're asking."

"THAT'S A HUGE RELIEF." Papyrus pulled Sans into an awkward hug, Sans pat the arm over his shoulders soothingly.

"sorry to make you worry."

"THAT IS ALRIGHT, I KNOW YOU DIDN'T WANT TO MAKE ME WORRY. IT'S JUST THAT YOU NEVER SEEMED REALLY INTERESTED IN STARTING A FAMILY BEFORE NOW, YOU NEVER ONCE TALKED ABOUT HAVING CHILDREN." Papyrus went back to gently scrubbing away the soot as he spoke.

"yeah, i guess i never really did, huh? it's not like i never thought about it, it's just that until recently i didn't really have the luxury to think about anything beyond what was going on. get a roof over us, keep it there, food, clothes, jobs, get us stable, make sure we got a good rep this time…" Sans sighed, he felt exhausted just thinking about what that time had been like.

"AND NOW WE HAVE ALL THOSE THINGS."

"yup, and i was starting to really get to know grillby, or i guess i should call him lord fiersome."

"IF HE'S YOUR HUSBAND DO YOU REALLY NEED TO KEEP CALLING HIM LORD?"

"huh… guess not." Sans shrugged. "i was just starting to really think about all those mushy, romantic, family things, and then there was that kiss you walked in on." He shot a glare up at Papyrus, who didn't have the grace to look the least bit ashamed. "and then i worried i was getting way ahead of myself when i didn't see him again. and then the whole sacrifice thing happened and just… here we are."

"HERE WE ARE INDEED." Papyrus paused to look around the room, so vastly different than the public baths they would sometimes visit. "BUT ARE YOU REALLY OKAY? YOU WERE VERY UPSET WHEN I FIRST ARRIVED."

"i think it's like you said, that i was overwhelmed. i barely had a chance to even wake up and remember what happened last night before the entire temple was crowding around me asking questions and then this midwife shows up outta nowhere and says they're **triplets** and i hadn't even thought anything about kids at all up until that point and… it's just a lot to swallow."

Papyrus snorted loudly. It took Sans a moment to realize just why Papyrus was laughing, then he burst into laughter himself.

"THAT'S ENOUGH DIRTY JOKES OUT OF YOU, WE'RE HERE TO GET CLEAN!" He kept laughing though, which did nothing to make Sans want to stop teasing him.

"i know it's a lot to _handle_, but i think i've already proven i can _take it_. after all, i'm already in the perfect _position_ to _do it_."

"STOP. STOP. STOP! ENOUGH OUT OF YOU!"

"you're laughing."

"ONLY BECAUSE I'M HAPPY YOU'RE FEELING BETTER ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR USUAL HORRIBLE JOKES."

"yeah… thanks."

"YOU'RE QUITE WELCOME." They fell back into silence as Papyrus finally deemed Sans's ribs clean enough and moved on to gently run the washcloth over his pseudo-flesh. Sans shuddered, the sensation still new and weird. "SO… TRIPLETS."

"yup."

"THAT IS A LOT OF BABIES TO HAVE ALL AT ONCE."

"yeah, i know." Sans rubbed his forehead, he'd spent the morning bouncing between trying not to think about it at all and stressing over what it would be like to be pregnant **with triplets**, to have to give birth **to triplets**, to have to take care of _**triplets**_. Papyrus was a nice reminder that he wouldn't have to do this all alone, at least. "but i figure it's a one and done kind of deal this way. three kids is plenty, who needs more than that? not me. just pop these three out and then i don't have to worry about being pregnant ever again." He hoped.

"OH, THAT IS A GOOD POINT." Papyrus sounded as if he wasn't quite sure how much he believed that. "YOU WOULD TAKE THE LAZIEST ROUTE POSSIBLE."

"it's not like i planned this."

"I DON'T THINK ANYONE PLANS ON TRIPLETS."

"yeah, guess not." Sans wasn't sure what to say after that, so he let them lapse back into silence.

Papyrus hummed to himself. "I'M NOT SURE HOW TO GET AT YOUR LEGS WITHOUT GETTING IN THE WATER MYSELF."

"huh? oh, that. just gimme the washcloth, i'm not a boat yet so i can still reach them just fine."

Papyrus handed over the washcloth. "WITH TRIPLETS YOU'RE GOING TO BE A WHOLE BATTLE SHIP."

"yeah," Sans agreed as he quickly scrubbed his legs, his flexibility was already getting hindered by just having a belly to work around. "probably gonna get put on bed rest by the end of it."

"ANOTHER EXCUSE FOR YOU TO LOUNGE AROUND IN BED." Papyrus tsk'd in disgust.

"this meet your standards?" Sans held up a leg, his foot barely above the surface of the water.

"IT'LL DO."

Sans handed over the washcloth, which Papyrus wrung out. Then he stood up and picked up the now soggy towel he'd been kneeling on. "YOU JUST STAY THERE A MOMENT, I'LL GO GET YOU A TOWEL AND THEN WE'LL PULL YOU OUT."

"sounds like a plan." While he waited for Papyrus, Sans stared down at his belly, distorted by the rippling of the water's surface. He hesitantly rested a hand against it, the heat emanating from it soothing. This was really happening, he was going to be a dad, his tiny family was growing. Both figuratively and literally growing inside him right then. He gently ran his thumb over the sensitive pseudo-flesh.

"SANS, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

Sans looked up at his brother, a gentle smile spread over his face. "yeah, i'm fine."

"YOU'RE CRYING." Papyrus reached down and gently cupped Sans's face with one hand, his thumb wiped at the corner of Sans's eye.

"huh, i am?" Sans reached up to feel his eyes, but the water from the bath made it impossible to tell if he was crying or not. "heh, guess i'm still feeling pretty overwhelmed. but it's okay, they're happy tears. promise."

* * *

AN: Finally. FINALLY! I got to use the joke I'd been chomping at the bit for since I started on this series. Holy [expletive] jokes! I do want to keep this fic T rated though, so there might be a lot of winks and nudges and jokes, but we're not going to get more explicit than that. Alas, I've used up my one F-word for this fic. T_T

Also sorry about the brief foray into discussing non-con, I wanted to confirm for both you guys and Papy that there isn't any, Sans is a-okay with this. He just needs to get a little used to the idea first. Goodness, he really wasn't thinking ahead last night. XD


	3. Still the Afternoon After

Sans patiently let Papyrus fuss over him as he was settled on his bed, a nest of pillows piled around him. "i'm telling you, papyrus, it's fine. i'm fine."

"BUT ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE READY TO TALK TO FIERI AND THE OTHERS? YOU CAN TAKE TIME TO REST, YOU MUST BE TIRED."

"is the world ending? my bro advocating laziness!"

Papyrus huffed and planted his fists on his hips as he glared down at Sans.

"i'm fine, papyrus. i'm all rested, got plenty of sleep in the eternal flame. actually, it was the best night's sleep i've had since… since… uh… since i can remember, honestly. that stone bowl thing is surprisingly comfy."

"THAT'S… GOOD?"

"yeah, so between a good night's sleep, breakfast, and your pampering i'm feeling pretty good. and i figure the sooner we get this over with the better."

"ALRIGHT, IF YOU'RE SURE… I'LL JUST GO GET THEM, THEN." Papyrus hesitate, half turned for the door.

"you'll stick around though, right? for moral support?"

Papyrus looked around the room skeptically. "WILL THERE BE ENOUGH ROOM FOR ALL OF US IN HERE?"

"sure, you can sit up here with me, and they can fight over the chair. whoever is left standing can just… stand around."

Papyrus gave the room one more look over, then nodded before leaning down to give one of the pillows one last fluff. "ALRIGHT, I'LL BE BACK SHORTLY WITH THE OTHERS."

"i'll be here." Sans gave a little wave as Papyrus left the room. He stretched, then winced. Pretty good was a pretty relative state of being, every joint in and around his pelvis ached, his lumbar spine too. The bed wasn't helping matters, it had no support at all. He shifted, rolling from his back to his side to his back again. Nothing helped. Sans sighed wearily, then rolled off the bed and moved to sit in the armchair by the fire. He sighed as he eased into it. It was firmer than the bed despite being overstuffed, enough that he didn't constantly feel like he was sinking further and further into a bottomless pit.

He fidgeted a bit to find the most comfortable position, then let himself relax. Without thinking about it one hand ended up resting over his belly, once Sans realized what he was doing he just stared down at the hand against the bright yellow sash tied snugly (but not **too** snugly) around his middle. He still felt a bit overwhelmed and shocked and maybe a bit weird about this whole thing. Is weird the right word? He's pretty sure it's the word you use for something you're not used to, and the kids were less than a day old. All three of them.

Sans pressed his palms against his brows. Don't think about it, not yet. He would see GrillbyFiersome again and talk about it with him. He just had to wait for tonight.

Right?

Oh god, what if he doesn't see FiersomeGrillby for another moth again?

The door swung open, pulling Sans out of his spiraling thoughts. Papyrus stood in the entrance, staring down at the now empty bed. Sans sighed in relief and waved, "hey bro, over here."

"OH, THERE YOU ARE. WHY AREN'T YOU IN BED?" He left the very obvious "WHERE I LEFT YOU" implied, though he did come over to start fussing again.

Sans shrugged, "it's pretty uncomfortable. too soft."

"IS THAT WHY YOU KEEP ENDING UP NAPPING IN WEIRD PLACES?"

"yeah, usually."

There was an annoyed huff from behind Papyrus.

"why don't you take a seat, though? we gotta get this cart rolling."

Papyrus moved over to the bed and gingerly sat down, sinking into it. Fieri came into the room, the other four head priests crowding in behind him. Without preamble Bonnie sat herself next to Papyrus on the bed, Terry claimed the chest at the foot of it for his own seat, leaving Fieri, Geoli, and Ignis to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room.

"so, i expect you got a lot of questions."

"Yes," Fieri said curtly, then moved to stand with his back to the fireplace, his hands clasped behind him, shoulders back, head held high. "Mostly we just want to confirm what happened, several people said you were asleep in the Eternal Flame this morning?"

"yeah, that uh… that sure happened."

"And you're pregnant?" Ignis blurted out.

"yeah, triplets according to uh…" Sans turned to Papyrus, "what was the midwife's name again?"

"SPOOKINS. THEY SAID THEY'D BE BACK LATER TO GIVE YOU INSTRUCTIONS."

"right, right, so you'll have to talk to them whenever they show back up."

"That wasn't what we were supposed to talk about next," Fieri said with a scowl sent Ignis's way before turning it back on Sans. "You were supposed to stand watch until sunrise."

"fiersome had other ideas."

The priests all perked up from their various places around the room. "So you did talk with Lord Fiersome?" Geoli asked in awe.

"uh… yeah? where did you think the kids came from?" Sans looked around at the other priests with a raised brow.

"That was supposed to be one of the things we talked about later, but apparently we're going completely out of order." Fieri huffed, a puff of smoke escaping his mouth.

"you guys don't think they're fiersome's." Sans slumped in his chair.

"We just need to be sure, hun," Bonnie offered apologetically.

"alright, what kind of proof do you want?" Sans had no idea where to even start.

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS! YOU WOULD THINK THE FACT HE DEFINITELY WASN'T PREGNANT YESTERDAY WOULD BE PROOF ENOUGH, BUT THEY'RE TRIPLETS FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! TRIPLETS DON'T JUST HAPPEN." Papyrus crossed his arms and pouted at the priests.

"He is right about Sans not being pregnant yesterday, or at least he couldn't have known yesterday," Geoli said, their words muffled as they looked down where they were fiddling with the knot of their sash.

"What do you mean?"

"Skeletons are a type of earth elemental, right?"

"we are?"

"ARE WE REALLY?"

"You're made of calcium," Geoli said slowly, like they were talking to someone particularly thick headed, "a kind of mineral, riiiiiiiiight?"

Sans and Papyrus both looked at each other, Sans shrugged. "sure, sounds about right."

"The way a lot of earth elementals work is having a cavity where most monsters have just soft, squishy flesh." As they spoke, Geoli's robe came off to show a tunic and trousers underneath. They held out their robe to Ignis, "Be a dear and hold this for a minute please, thank you." Now with their hands free, they lifted their tunic to show off their body, smooth stone skin interrupted by an emptiness where it looked like part of their body had been carved away, leaving a smooth, curving column for their back. The hole started right below where their ribs would be, widened to eat away their sides, then closed up again right around where their trousers started. They waved a hand in the empty space, "See? Nothing there. Usually we can generate a weak field of magic to keep clothes out, it's kind of uncomfortable to have something inside your personal space even if it can fit."

"And Sans spent all yesterday with his robes tied up in there!"

"ugh, did I ever."

"Right," Geoli agreed cheerfully. They held their sash against the empty space, showing off it taking the form of a body that wasn't there. "This field can be relaxed and allow foreign things in," Geoli did just that, pulling the sash tight against their spine equivalent. "But when the space is occupied by someone, or in this case a few someones, it's not just a weak field anymore, but a durable construct of magic. If it were to be released like this the babies would die."

Sans winced, that wasn't something he wanted to even consider.

"So what did you mean by he couldn't have known?" Fieri crossed his arms and shifted his weight.

"The construct manifesting is the first sign of pregnancy. There might be a way to confirm before then, but if so Pa didn't tell us when he gave us The Talk." Geoli removed their sash and let their tunic fall back in place, then started redressing.

"Well, this has certainly been informative," Terry said cheerfully. "So I think it's time we moved on the. What do you think, Fieri?"

"Yes, please, we seem to have gotten way off track." He firmed his stance back up. "Now then, what haven't we covered yet? Ah yes, what exactly did you and Lord Fiersome discuss?"

"in all honesty, noooooooot a lot of talking last night."

The room burst into various snorts, giggles, and guffaws. Papyrus was laughing while also looking very guilty, probably for laughing. Sans grinned widely, even if there was a faint flush to his face.

Fieri's face was buried firmly in his hand, giving out a long, low, pained groan.

"Did you manage to talk to him at all?" Ignis eventually asked, barely holding back her laughter.

"of course."

There was a moment of expectant silence.

"Are you going to tell us?" Geoli prompted.

"nope."

"What? Why not?!" Fieri sounded as if her were at his wit's end.

"because it was all private stuff." Sans cocked an eyebrow at them. Honestly, he wasn't sure if FiersomeGrillby wanted him to share the fact he had a mortal disguise. They really hadn't talked about anything else either, it had been a long day and Sans had fallen asleep well before the sun rose. "you know, married stuff."

Geoli and Terry were both nodding along to that, Bonnie was smirking.

"So you would consider this a legitimate marriage?" Ignis asked with a smile.

"yeah, of course. i thought you guys did too?"

"Considering how reluctant you were, this is a complete turn around in attitude." Fieri narrowed his eyes at Sans, head cocked at an odd angle.

"well like i said, fiersome and i did talk a little and he changed my mind. no harm in changing your mind."

Papyrus was nodding along, a hand over his teeth though Sans could still see the wide smile behind it. Bonnie was eyeing him from her place next to him.

"Well, I think that about covered everything we wanted to ask," Ignis said cheerfully.

"Oh!" Terry's ears perked up, his tail started to gently swish back and forth. "That means it's my turn?" Terry looked around, getting nods form the other priests. Fieri made a "go on" motion. "Right! So while we were speaking earlier we discussed the significance not just of a union between a mortal and a god, but also the significance of the timing. This coming winter will mark the twentieth anniversary of the war ending."

Sans slumped down into the chair again, his good mood, both from being believed and from how sour Fieri was becoming, vanished with Terry's words.

"Isn't it exciting?" Ignis asked, her flames flickering wildly. "Lord Fiersome chose now of all times to revive a forgotten tradition, and on top of that shortly after the actual anniversary of the end of the war the first demigods in modern times will be born."

"If they're anything like twins they'll probably be born a bit early," Bonnie commented. "My sister had a set of twins, she said the midwife said twins always come early."

"Oh!" Ignis exclaimed. "How early? Do you think triplets come as early as twins? Earlier? Wouldn't it be amazing if they were born right on the anniversary?"

Sans leaned to one side of the chair, resting his head on a hand. The rest of Ignis's chatter and the others' responses faded into background noise. If he listened to any more he might get a headache, or scream at them. Probably both.

"I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH, YOU ASKED ALL YOUR QUESTIONS AND SAID EVERYTHING YOU HAD TO SAY. SOMEONE IN SANS'S CONDITION NEEDS REST, SO LET'S LEAVE HIM BE FOR A LITTLE WHILE."

Sans looked up to see Papyrus had stood and was shooing everyone out of the room. Ignis and Geoli, being next to the door, were the first to leave. Fieri followed suit, already saying something to the others about needing to scour the texts they had available again. Terry got up from the chest and came over, taking one of Sans's hands in his own.

"Don't worry, no matter what happens you and your children will be well cared for."

"thanks, that does actually help."

"Of course, a lot is happening all at once! Hopefully tonight you can speak with Lord Fiersome and lay all your worries to rest."

"heh, that obvious?"

Terry gave his hand a gentle squeeze, then paused. "Oh, you're not wearing gloves."

"nah, they uh… they got burned up with everything else last night."

"I don't think I've ever seen you without gloves on," Terry turned the hand in his grip. "Do both your hands have holes? Have they always been there?" He held up Sans's hand, showing off the hollow formed from the four bones making his hand connecting. It was shaped a bit like a four pointed star.

"yeah, papyrus has them too." Sans held up his other hand to show off the hole. "we make that field thing to keep clothes out, but sometimes small things just fall through. it's why we wear gloves, mostly." He hadn't been lying when he said bone didn't have much grip either, gloves just helped them do everything.

"YES, LUNCH WOULD BE VERY NICE, THANK YOU," Papyrus said as Bonnie walked out the door.

"Goodness," she said in reply, "it's only just past noon, what a busy morning we've had."

"VERY BUSY," Papyrus agreed. "A VERY BUSY, EXCITING, **TIRING** MORNING."

"It was a pleasure to speak with you," Terry added, giving Sans's hand a final squeeze. "I'll leave you be for now, rest well."

"sure, see you tomorrow."

"We should check the archives for the births of other demigods, see about the importance of notable dates…" Terry's voice trailed off as he nodded to Papyrus and he left.

The door clicked shut, the room finally blessedly quiet. Sans slumped somehow further into the chair, staring listlessly at his lap. There was the clink of Papyrus's armor, the shift of fabric, a soft footstep over the thick rug, then there was a skeletal hand caressing the crown of his skull.

"SANS, ARE YOU FEELING UNWELL? SHOULD I SEND FOR A DOCTOR OR MIDWIFE?"

Sans reached for Papyrus and pulled him into a hug. "grill- fiersome's not like that! he said he loves me and wanted to court me and couldn't and… and just… my kids aren't just some symbolic gesture _thing_!"

"NO, NO, OF COURSE NOT. I'M SURE HE LOVES THEM JUST AS MUCH AS YOU DO." He settled himself further into the hug, arms wrapped around Sans's back as he murmured comforting things and Sans slowly breathed his anxiety out.

* * *

AN: I mentioned earlier I'm working off the four classical Greek elements: earth, fire, wind, and water. What I didn't have a chance to talk about earlier is the divide between humans and monsters, and also the specifics of how exactly the four elements actually work in my setting. All physical creatures work off the elements the way they were intended: all four need to be present for a living creature to… well… live! Fish might be more water than a lizard or a bird, but they still have all four elements within them. Humans too: we breath (air), are warm to the touch (fire), need water (water), and the whole ashes to ashes dust to dust thing (earth). Thus those that put in the time and effort to study magic can use all four kinds of magic, though not as easily or as strongly as monsters can.

Monsters, on the other hand, can be any combination and any number of the elements. They can have all four or just be made of solely one, Grillby is a great example of just being all one element (unless he has an onyx or magma core under his flames we don't know about, fully possible but not in this story). But more importantly: the way I'm using the four elements here is not literally earth, fire, etc… but rather they represent the four (common) states of matter (I'm not dealing with plasma, no fifth element for me kthx). So while calcium is a mineral, the boys are actually classed under earth elemental because their bones are solid matter. So really it goes earth-solid, water-liquid, air-gas, and fire-energy. I could ramble on but I'm running out of room.

So the way I see it, earth elementals come in three categories: statuesque (one solid piece that moves through magic, think weeping angels), BJD (the joints don't have to be ball, but any combo of larger pieces that fit together to make a whole), and swarm (lots of tiny pieces, like sand). So long as the piece(s) are solid, it doesn't matter how they fit together, it's an earth elemental. So the boys are BJD with statuesque faces. But then you get some interesting overlap, like an elemental made of mud when one parent is an earth elemental and the other is a water elemental. Is Tsunderplane the result of an earth and air elemental having a child? Or is she a ghost possessing one of those really big RC airplanes? How about a living suit of armor? Ah! It's so fun to think about.


	4. The Holy Husband

Sans was sitting on Fiersome's altar as golden evening light streamed in from the high windows. The room had been cleared out at his request, not that the priests were allowing anyone in today to begin with, the usual requests and offerings were just going to have to wait until tomorrow. He had been sitting there for a little while, he was tired of sitting around in his room or the archive or out in the courtyard as anxiety and stress built. If he was going to be overthinking everything he may as well do so in private while waiting for his husband.

He desperately hoped he would see GrillbyFiersome again, and this was the right place and time to wait.

He watched as the walls started to take on a more reddish hue, the beams of light drifting ever higher as the sun got closer and closer to the horizon. A pair of warm arms wrapped around Sans from behind. He sighed and craned his head to look behind him, where FiersomeGrillby had pulled him into a gentle embrace.'

"well hey there, hot stuff."

"… Hello dearest." GrillbyFiersome kissed the side of his skull, then started to shift. A leg appeared on either side of Sans, his husband sitting behind him on the altar. Sans relaxed as he was pulled snugly into a warm, firm chest, his tension slowly draining away with just the other's presence. "… How was your day? Mine was insufferably busy."

"yeah, that's a pretty good way to put it." Sans looked up, staring at the bright yellow flames fluttering from his husband's head. "that and really stressful, i don't think anyone expected this." He patted his belly to illustrate exactly what no one expected.

FiersomeGrillby hugged him tighter, burying his face in Sans's shoulder. "… I can't tell you how happy I am, truly." One of his hands moved down to caress the summoned flesh through his clothes. "… I thought it would take time for you to love me back, that you would have to get used to my true form. And mortals have so little time."

"maybe i'm as much a sentimental fool as my bro, but after that first kiss i was ready to just jump to the good stuff. it's actually kinda nice to pass by all that social convention nonsense, would've been better if i'd known what was really going on."

"… I'm sorry about that, there are rules…"

"it's okay, i get it. and it's too late now, anyway, so no use crying over it. we got each other now. for the rest of my life, you said?"

"… For as long as you'll have me and then some."

Sans sighed, the last of the tension still coiling around his soul easing away. "i love you."

"… I love you too."

Sans laughed, "i already knew that."

"… But it's always worth saying." His other hand moved down, both pressed gently against Sans's belly. "… And I never dared even hope for children, such a wonderful gift." He spoke reverently against Sans's acoustic meatus, voice barely above a whisper.

Sans laughed again, hearty chuckles that shook his frame. "if you weren't thinking about kids and i wasn't thinking about kids, then where'd these little guys come from?"

"… Just because I didn't dare hope doesn't mean… wait. These?"

"yeah?"

"… As in more than one?"

"yeah?" Sans twisted around a bit, looking up at his husband's face. "you didn't know?"

He shook his head. "… We're not omniscient. Are they twins?"

Sans shook his head. "triplets."

"… Oh my god."

Sans sputtered, unsure how to react to that. When a god said that, who are they calling on? The high gods?

GrillbyFiersome scrambled off the altar, nearly dropping Sans off it when he suddenly lost his support. Then he was in front of Sans, on his knees, face level with his belly, hands on either side. Sans felt a pulse of magic travel through him, three tiny pulses echoed faintly back.

"… Triplets," he whispered in awe. He looked up at Sans with wide, bright eyes, then reached up to Sans' neck and pulled him down into a kiss. Sans steadied himself against his husband's shoulders as he leaned into the kiss. He eagerly drank in Grillby's heat, the warm hands against his face, his body pressed between Sans's knee, the hand still on his belly snaked around his back to pull Sans all the closer.

Eventually they parted, Sans breathing heavily as he gazed down at his husband with half lidded eyes. His husband didn't seem quite finished yet, peppering Sans's jaw and cheeks with little kisses. Sans laughed, feeling light and bubbly.

"okay, okay, that's enough for now." He straightened up, leaving his husband's face level with his clavicle. "still sore from last night, not up for anything too intense tonight."

His husband looked up at Sans with a gentle smile as he rested his chin against Sans's chest, arms pooled loosely around his hips. "… You're amazing."

Sans felt magic rush to his face, that light and bubbly feeling back. "i'm not really."

"… You are," he insisted, his smile growing wider. "… You married me, you even love me back, you're giving me not one but **three** children, you're so kind and gentle, I can't help loving you. You're truly amazing."

Sans wasn't sure how to respond to all that. "come on, get back up here. your knees must hurt already."

"… Not really. This is my temple, the inner temple at that. Everything here is consecrated in my name, it can never do me any harm."

"oh. still, this is getting awkward." Sans tugged gently on his husband's arm, who obligingly stood and moved to sit next to Sans on the altar. There was a lot of scooting and shifting, but eventually they were sitting side by side on the altar. "and this is somehow worse. is there a better place for us to just sit and talk?"

"… You have a bedroom, don't you?"

"oh right, i do."

"… Show me, I'd like to see it. Plus it'll be easier to find you when my duties are done for the day."

"you mean i don't have to wait here to see you?" Sans slipped from the altar.

"… Not if you don't want to." He stood and took Sans's hand in his own. "… I know mortals don't feel the difference between consecrated ground and regular ground, I imagine it would make you uncomfortable after a while."

Sans shrugged as he led his husband towards the living area behind the temple. "probably, haven't really noticed yet. apparently we're earth aligned so stone doesn't affect me the way it does more fleshy monsters."

"… That's good to know, after you fell asleep yesterday I wondered if I should move you or not, you seemed comfortable enough."

"i was pretty comfortable, best night's sleep i've had in a long while."

"… I'm glad." He tugged on Sans's hand, pulling him into a quick kiss before letting him continue.

"you flirt."

"… I'm allowed to kiss my own husband."

"yeah, but maybe we should do that in my room. our room? is it your room now too?"

"… Technically everything attached to the temple is mine. I suppose it's yours now too."

"huh… neat." Sans had no idea what else to say to that. Instead he stopped in front of the door. "here it is, last door on the left. super easy to remember."

"… I'll be sure to remember."

Sans opened the door carefully and peeked in. Papyrus had said goodbye and gone home when Sans had decided to just hunker down in the inner court, but some last minute distraction might have kept him here a bit longer. It had happened before. The room was completely empty save for the holy flames in the fireplace burning low and Balboa snoring gently from their home on the dresser. He pulled his husband into the room.

"so, this is it." He stood in the center of the room, arms out to gesture at it.

"… It's nice, very cozy."

"yeah, all the clutter really adds to that cozy feel."

"… Do you not like it?"

"most of this stuff was gifts from various bigwigs, all it does it take up space." He flicked a bronze statuette standing on top of the bookshelf. One month wasn't enough time to commission a whole new work of any kind, let alone the two weeks between being announced as the chosen bridegroom and the wedding. Most likely all the gifts were just old stuff they had lying around and thought would impress Sans.

"… Then have it moved somewhere else. Make Char take them, or put them in the archive, or shove them in storage. You don't ever have to do anything you don't want to."

"you know what? i will! first thing tomorrow, papyrus will love helping me with that. and i'll get a new bed too." He sneered at the bed.

GrillbyFiersome laughed as he sat on the bed. "… It seems fine to me."

"well i'm the one who has to sleep in it, so my opinion's the only one that matters. or are you sleeping here too?"

His husband just laughed as he shook his head. Sans sat down next to him, but FiersomeGrillby put an arm over him to pull him into his lap. Once situated, Sans snuggled into his husband's chest. "so what do i call you anyway? grillby? fiersome?"

"… I'm partial to husband, dearest, or even love of my life."

Sans chuckled, "i meant more what should i call you to others? i don't know if you're okay with telling them about your disguise."

"… Ah, that. I'd rather you didn't, pretending to be a mortal has its uses. But you may call my whatever name you like."

"hmmm…" Sans hummed to himself as he put on a show of thinking it over, even going so far as to put a hand to his chin to stroke a beard he would never grow. "baby daddy has a nice ring to it. or what about mother fu-" The rest of what Sans was about to say was drowned out by Grillby's laughter. Sans enjoyed having a front row seat, he would never get tired of that laugh. Once Grillby had a chance to calm down, Sans spoke again. "so… what uh, what's my life going to be like now?"

"… However you want it, you give the orders here. Even Char has to listen to you."

"heh, it's so funny you keep calling him by his first name. i'm gonna have to start doing that." Sans chortled, he'd tried calling Fieri by his first name when he'd first moved into the temple. He had no idea a fire elemental could be so frosty. "but what i meant was: am i only ever going to see you at night? do i have any duties or ceremonies i gotta do? that sort of thing."

Grillby sighed deeply. "… I'm afraid that during the day my attention is far too scattered to spend any real time with you, five cities is more than I ever would have willingly become patron to if it hadn't been necessary."

Right, two of them used to belong to other gods who died during the war. Sans shuddered and clung tighter to Grillby, suddenly very aware Grillby could have been one of those casualties and they'd have never met.

"… So yes, I'll only be able to see you after the gates are closed and secured for the evening, and then the next morning duty calls again."

"i thought as much. but that's fine, i'm used to staying up late. i'll just sleep during the day so i'll always be awake to see you."

"… Thank you, precious." Grillby kissed the crown of Sans's skull. "… As for duties, there's not a single ceremony you need to be part of. But I would be very happy if you chose to."

"i imagine what i'll be able to do is going to be less and less as time goes on."

Grillby's hand moved to gently caress Sans's belly. "… The little ones are far more important than any duty that Char or any other priest can perform just fine without you."

"that's good." Sans rested his head on Grillby's shoulder, relaxing into the soothing touch and the comfortable heat. Despite the nap Papyrus had insisted he take after lunch to make staying up late easier, Sans was starting to drowse. He wouldn't think a mere two weeks of Fieri attempting to force an early morning schedule on him would be enough to undo nearly three years of night shifts, and yet his eyes were already drooping.

"… Can I see?"

"huh?" Grillby's question snapped Sans out of his daze. "what? the kids? not much to see yet, really."

"… I know but… Please?"

How could Sans say no to that? Even without the puppy dog eyes Grillby was giving him he'd have said yes. He untied the sash, struggling to unwind it while staying curled up in Grillby's lap. With a little squeal of excitement, Grillby started helping him undress. Soon the belt and robes were off. Sans started to pull his undershirt off, but Grillby beat him to it by simply pulling the hem up, his other hand pressed gently into the squishy pseudo-flesh. Sans put his own hand over Grillby's. This was nice, really nice. Sitting here, wrapped up in his husband's arms, looking forward to building a family together, Sans found he didn't have a care in the world.

* * *

AN: Finally! Four chapters in and the other half of the OTP shows up. And look! They're talking! Healthy communication! I'm so proud of them, I knew they could do it if they tried.

Also… hee hee hee… it doesn't count as another F-word if I don't type out the whole thing. :3c


	5. The Start of a Pattern

Sans woke up on the floor, his eyes blinked open to find himself staring at the empty space under his bed. He vaguely remembered Grillby laying him down at some point, which probably explained him being wrapped up tightly in a blanket and another one draped over him. It was nice. Almost made Sans not want to move and undo all of Grillby's careful work. He shifted and stretched out his legs anyway, even he couldn't stay still forever.

"SANS? ARE YOU AWAKE?"

"huh?" Sans tried to roll over, not easy while tangled up in two blankets. He managed to get a look over his shoulder, Papyrus was sitting in his overstuffed chair. "hey bro, morning."

"GOOD AFTERNOON," Papyrus corrected with a grin. "HERE, LET ME HELP YOU WITH THAT."

"thanks, appreciate it."

Papyrus knelt down next to Sans and started peeling him from his comfortable prison. Once free, Sans sat up and Papyrus made a displeased noise. "THERE'S SOOT ALL OVER YOUR FACE." He reached out to wipe it off, only succeeding in smearing it all over his gloves and Sans's face.

"oh uh… is there? heh."

"YOU WEREN'T EVEN NEAR THE HEARTH. OR ANY OF THE FIRES AT ALL, REALLY. WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET THESE MARKS FROM?"

"the hubby."

Papyrus paused, giving Sans a side eye. "WELL… I'M GLAD TO SEE YOU TWO GETTING ALONG. BUT! WE SHOULD PERHAPS CLEAN YOU UP BEFORE TALKING TO THE PRIESTS."

"oh yeah, got a lot to tell them. they waiting on me?"

"YES," Papyrus stood up and tried to clap the soot from his hands, it didn't budge. "BUT THEY CAN WAIT A LITTLE LONGER, THEY APPARENTLY HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO."

"man, that sounds boring."

"I KNOW! ANYWAY, I'LL JUST WASH YOUR FACE OFF…" Papyrus turned around as he surveyed the room. "SANS, YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO WASH YOUR FACE IN THIS ROOM."

"yeah, but it's not like i'd bother even if there was."

Papyrus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, the other resting firmly on his hip, then he pointed at the fireplace. "YOUR BREAKFAST IS IN THERE. YOU EAT WHILE I GO GET SOMETHING TO WASH YOU WITH."

"sure thing, bro." Sans gave Papyrus a thumbs up the other didn't see as he stalked out of the room. Sans shrugged to himself, then turned to find a covered tray sitting half in the fireplace, the holy flames gathered around it blinking curiously up at him. "hey guys, keeping my breakfast warm for me? that's so sweet, you deserve a little extra." He winked at the holy flames, who all crackled and flickered in gleeful anticipation.

Between Papyrus's diligence and Sans's usual reluctance to do more than absolutely necessary, they eventually got Sans fed, washed, and dressed in fresh clothes. "every day for two weeks straight, i think that's some kind of record," Sans commented as Papyrus carefully tied off his belt.

"I DO BELIEVE IT IS, LET'S SEE IF WE CAN KEEP IT GOING."

Now fully dressed, Sans sauntered over to the archive, Papyrus trailing cheerfully behind him. Just as expected, Sans found the five head priests all seated in a semicircle around one empty chair. Sans took that as his cue and sat down while Papyrus hovered nearby. "grab a seat bro, you may as well hear this too."

Fieri huffed, but otherwise didn't comment.

Terry leaned forward, his thick muzzle fur ruffling before he spoke. "So, did you speak with Lord Fiersome this time?"

"yup, got more information on the whole bridegroom thing."

All five priests perked up at this.

"it's really a marriage, not just some ceremonial title thing."

Bonnie tittered, "Of course, hun, we don't doubt that." She motioned to Sans's middle, where his hands had come to rest without him thinking about it.

Sans chuckled, "yeah, but what i mean is that i'm not some special case. every mortal bridegroom has been married to their god, we're not just a different kind of oracle or some sort of example or… or metaphor or what have you." Sans waved a hand vaguely.

Ignis frowned, "Then why were some of them so short? Why did most of them end at all?"

"no one likes to talk about failed marriages." Sans winced when he heard a dismayed gasp from Papyrus, maybe he shouldn't have brought his shamelessly romantic and tender hearted brother along for this. "it's pretty sad when a love story doesn't have a happy ending."

"That is sad," Ignis agreed morosely as she sat back in her seat.

"yeah." Sans looked down, both hands fisted in the fabric over his knees. Then he took a deep breath and looked back up. "that said, i'm in this for the long haul. fiersome and i are married, so that means i'm sticking around for the rest of my life."

There were several sounds of approval from the others, including a very proud "NYEH HEH HEH," from nearby.

"so, with that out of the way, fiersome told me that everything in and around the temple technically belongs to him. all the temples in his name, actually. and as his husband that means they belong to me too."

The priests all sat up straighter, sending each other nervous glances.

"Well, yes…" Geoli said carefully. "You're his husband, even without the triplets we would listen to whatever messages you delivered."

Sans shook his head, "no messages this time. just uh… i hate my bed."

Geoli smiled sympathetically and nodded. "We figured as much yesterday. In fact, I took the liberty of arranging for a replacement, it should be here later today or tomorrow."

Sans smiled gratefully at Geoli, "thanks, but that's not everything. the chair is okay, but if we got something firmer i'd rather replace it too. and i'm tired of my room being crowded by all those meaningless gifts."

"What?" Fieri asked in shock. "No! Those were sent by wealthy patrons, we absolutely will not insult them by **throwing away** their gifts!"

"then don't throw them away, _char_," Sans said in his most authoritative, big brother voice. "put them in the main temple, or the archive, or shove them all in your room. pick one, i don't care. i just don't want them in **my** room." While Fieri grumbled, Sans turned to Papyrus. "hey bro, wanna help me sort through what stays and what goes?"

"I'D BE DELIGHTED TO HELP YOU CLEAN YOUR ROOM, BROTHER!"

Sans nodded, then turned back to the others. "right, this is for the rest of my life, i want to be comfortable."

"That's perfectly understandable, hun." Bonnie winked and smiled mischievously at him. "And as devoted servants of your husband, it's our honor to make you as comfortable as possible." Her eyes slid over to Fieri as she spoke, a sharpness leaking into her words that was clearly not directed at Sans.

Fieri coughed and straightened out his robes. "Of course, whatever you wish. Did Lord Fiersome send along any other messages or instructions?"

"nah, we mostly just talked about what life is going to be like now. when i get to see him, my duties, what day-to-day stuff is going to be, that sort of thing. so for now nothing else is changing, i guess." Sans shrugged.

"In that case, it seems we have some duties to perform." Terry heaved himself out of his chair, then turned to Geoli. "Shall we go see what we can do about that chair, then?"

* * *

Sans was sitting on his new bed, this one much firmer and far more comfortable than the first. He sighed happily as he leaned back into firm pillows that did so much more to support his spine than the bags of cloud fluff ever did. The room became just that much brighter, light gathering into a form in front of Sans that resolved into Grillby. Sans smiled and held his arms out in welcome. Grillby happily climbed onto the bed and engulfed Sans in a hug. Their faces met, Sans happily drinking in the heat and flames Grillby gave off.

"… Hello."

"hi."

"… I see you redecorated." Grillby propped himself up to look around the room without moving from his spot.

Sans laughed and nudged Grillby's shoulder, his husband obligingly rolled off and let Sans sit up. "yeah, took your suggestion to heart."

"… It is much more pleasant with less… stuff." They looked around the room, Sans smiling at the lack of fancy vases and statues of people or gods he didn't recognize. "… The bed is different too."

"yeah, haven't gotten a chance to test it out yet, but i already like it better."

"… Oh! You have fire sprites in your hearth."

"huh?" Sans glanced up at Grillby, who was looking down at the fireplace.

"… I didn't notice them last night. And they look utterly spoiled."

"you mean the holy flames?" Sans looked down at the fireplace himself, where five pairs of glimmering black eyes stared up at him.

"… We just call them fire sprites. You overfeed them."

"they work hard keeping my room nice and toasty, let me spoil them."

Grillby laughed, "… I suppose spoiling them for a little while won't hurt them."

"your concept of a little while and mine are probably vastly different."

"… Probably." Grillby looked over the rest of the room, pausing as he came to the nightstand. "… You have an earth sprite too."

"i do?" Sans asked, looking around the nightstand like he expected something to jump out at him.

"… A rock earth sprite, specifically." Grillby got up and gently laid a hand on Sans's pet rock.

"oh, that's just balboa, my pet rock."

Balboa gave a pleased rumble at the attention.

"i think they like you."

"… They're spoiled, just like your fire sprites."

Sans shrugged, "so?"

Grillby leaned down to peck Sans on the head. "… Just pointing out facts."

"you like that i spoil them." Sans grinned as he pulled grillby back onto the bed with him, eager to cuddle more with his husband.

"… Now you're the one just pointing out facts?" He let himself be pulled onto the bed and folded Sans into a warm embrace.

"sure, and while we're at it i got some head priest facts."

"… Ugh, really?"

"yeah, they uh… they wrote out a list of questions they got for you." Sans picked up a piece of paper from the nightstand next to Balboa's new home.

"… I spend all day dealing with these mortals and now they want to intrude on what little time I get to spend with you?"

"well, you haven't given me any messages to pass along to them. that's one of the few things they know for a fact i can actually do."

"… I don't care, I have precious little time with you as it is. I don't want to talk about other mortals."

"okay." Sans flung the paper away from him, it flipped through the air a few times before landing on the hearth. "oops, looks like i dropped it."

"… Is that a fact?"

They both giggled. Then Sans snuggled closer to Grillby. "so, how was your day?"

"… Hectic and busy, just like every day is. How about you?"

"well, i spent most of it cleaning the room out. the most interesting thing was probably when i had a conference with the head priests."

"… I thought I told you I don't want to hear about other mortals."

"then talking to me's going to get pretty boring, i gotta deal with them all day too. can i at least talk about my bro?"

Grillby nodded. "… Family is the exception. What'd Papyrus do today?"

"he helped me get this place cleaned out and everything put in new homes, it was great."

"… He's a very caring brother, you're lucky to have him."

"yeah, he's the best." Sans chuckled, then perked up as he heard some particularly loud fire crackling. "what's that?"

They both sat up from reclining on the pillows to look over at the fireplace. All five fire sprites had come out onto the hearth and were eagerly devouring the list Fieri and the other priests had carefully written up. Grillby and Sans both burst into laughter.

* * *

AN: Look at those two adorable dorks being hopelessly mushy with each other. I could write that all day long, they're so cute! So yeah, expect a lot of that this fic, Sans dealing with annoying mortals during the day and then just cuddling and snuggling with his hubby when the sun goes down. Sans doesn't like having to put his foot down, it's too much work. Hopefully he won't have to do too much of that with Fieri.

… Who am I kidding, that's his entire character in my notes: control issues. Ah well, at least Sans isn't afraid to stand up for himself. I'm so proud of him not just rolling over and taking it.


	6. Meeting the Family

"morning," Sans mumbled sleepily as he passed Bonnie in the hall.

"Good afternoon," she replied with a giggle and a hand over her mouth to hide both it and her smug smile. "Any news from Lord Fiersome?"

"nah, not this time either. he's pretty happy with the status quo so just keep doing what you're doing, i guess." Sans shrugged, unsure what else to say.

"And I will just as soon as I get back home. Actually, I should go finish packing."

"oh right, you gotta head back to ashborough." Sans had forgotten that was coming up so soon. It would be a relief to not have to deal with all five head priests all day every day, but he would miss them. Especially the friendlier ones like Terry and Bonnie.

"And the others are leaving too, first thing in the morning."

"yeah… that makes sense. it's just, i'll miss you guys."

"We'll keep in contact and come back for visits. We'll certainly all be here for the birth, if nothing else."

Sans tried not to wince, judging from Bonnie's expression he hadn't done a very good job of it. "yeah… the birth… that i have to give."

"Sorry to remind you, but you'll have to get used to the idea sooner or later. And with triplets there isn't as much later."

"yeah, but i still pick later."

"Well then, I have packing to get back to so I'll see you later."

Sans chuckled and gave a little wave before heading back down the hallway. The only easy access to the courtyard was unbearably far away, but it's not like he had much choice. Oh he could probably have just stayed in his room, or even gone to the archive, but he wanted a change of scenery and the courtyard was his best option, at least while the weather was still nice. He idly thought about going out into the city proper, to visit the library or a tavern or even the marketplace, if today was even a market day. Stars, he wasn't even sure when those were anymore. No one had strictly forbade him from doing any of those things, but he had a feeling that if he did the others would panic if he didn't tell them before hand and insist on accompanying him if he did. Right now Sans couldn't handle any of that, so to the courtyard he went.

Finally he was through the door and out into the warm sunshine he'd seen from his windows. The courtyard was rather nice, an open area with a cobblestone path leading over to a large gate that could be opened to allow large things in if need be, a chicken coop off to the side with several trees and shrubberies acting as a screen around it, the kitchen gardens right next to the door and continuing to the corner and around it to the next wall, all the way until just under a window Sans was almost sure belonged to Fieri, there more trees and shrubs framed a stone bench.

The bench just happened to be Sans's goal, he ambled over and sat his tailbone down on it. Once he was reasonably comfortable leaning against the wall he pulled a thin novel from his robes, a new one Papyrus had given him with the same conspiratorial wink and smirking whispers he'd brought in a pastry just over two weeks ago but felt like an eon. He opened the novel and started reading.

He had just gotten to the part where the mysterious, powerful stranger declared himself the Monkey King's heretofore unknown long lost brother (and Sans was starting to suspect this was part of a continuing epic) when he heard the door to the courtyard burst open. He looked up, Papyrus was standing in the doorway, looking very handsome in his new priest robes, one hand on the handle, the other tightly gripping the tray with Sans's breakfast on it. His untouched breakfast. Papyrus's eyes narrowed when he spotted Sans. Oh boy.

Papyrus stepped out into the courtyard and carefully shut the door behind him, then marched right over to Sans, his grip on the tray so tight if he had skin Sans was sure it would be beyond white.

"SANS! IS THERE A REASON YOU DIDN'T EAT YOUR BREAKFAST?" He stopped right in front of Sans, glaring down at him.

Sans shrugged, "eh, didn't feel like eating."

"WHY?" Papyrus drug the question out, like he wanted to ask more and was holding back, or maybe like he just didn't know what question he was even really asking.

Sans gave another shrug before slipping a piece of ribbon into the book and tucking it back into his robes. He had a feeling Papyrus wasn't going to just leave him be right then.

"SANS! DO I NEED TO REMIND YOU THAT YOU'RE NOT JUST EATING FOR YOURSELF BUT ALSO FOR THREE OTHER WHOLE PEOPLE?!"

"bro, they're a week old, it's not like they need a whole lot yet."

"BROTHER!"

Sans squirmed in place, it's not like he wasn't hungry at all, he just hadn't felt like eating.

Papyrus's tense shoulders fell, he moved to sit next to Sans and nudged him gently with his elbow. "ARE YOU REALLY NOT HUNGRY? OR IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE GOING ON? TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG SO I CAN FIX IT."

"guess i'm not really feeling all that hungry, i could eat." Sans shrugged again. "and i know there's nothing wrong with the food, the stuff they serve here is pretty good. but it just… i don't know… i didn't really want it for some reason." Sans shrugged yet again, at a loss for how else to express it.

"WELL… DID YOU EVEN TRY?"

"eh, not really."

"PLEASE JUST TRY, FOR ME?" Papyrus offered the tray to Sans, who reluctantly accepted it.

He guessed the food didn't look so bad. Sans grabbed the fork resting on the tray next to the plate and pushed some of his food around a bit, then loaded up the fork and stuck the mouthful into his teeth. "okay, that's not nearly as bad as it looked when i first got up. maybe i should just wait a little to wake all the way up first?"

"THAT SOUNDS WEIRD AND ILLOGICAL, WHICH ARE THE PERFECT WORDS TO DESCRIBE YOU SO THAT MUST BE WHAT'S GOING ON."

"yeah, but remind me to ask spookins about it next time they visit."

Papyrus hummed noncommittally and laced his fingers together to rest around his knee. He watched as Sans continued to eat, likely to make sure Sans actually ate the whole thing.

"so, the other priests are all heading back to their own temples tomorrow morning."

"YES, AND YOU MAY EVEN GET TO SEE THEM OFF IF YOU STAY AWAKE PAST SUNRISE. I'M NOT SURE ABOUT WHEN YOU CHOOSE TO SLEEP, BUT YOU CERTAINLY ARE SLEEPING MORE REGULARLY."

"heh, guess being married's good for something."

"OH! THAT REMINDS ME, I HAVE TONIGHT OFF!"

"from what?" Sans asked in confusion.

"FROM BEING A NIGHTWATCHMAN, OF COURSE."

"oh, i thought you quit."

"I QUIT BEING A GATE GUARD, THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH NIGHTWATCHMEN AND I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE CATRINA COMPLETELY SHORTHANDED SO SOON AFTER LOSING YOU."

"okay, so what you going to do with all that free time?"

"I WAS HOPING TO ACTUALLY OFFICIALLY MEET MY BROTHER-IN-LAW."

"sure, i think we can make that happen."

* * *

Sans sat on Fiersome's altar, feet swinging idly as he waited for the sun to finish setting. He'd actually been sitting there for a while, planting himself on the altar and pulling out his novel to finish reading even as the priests finished tidying up the room after the last sacrifice of the day had been given. They had all given Sans strange looks, but he didn't care. The altar was comfortable, and he literally had nothing better to do but wait around to see his husband again. He really needed to find a new hobby, all this sitting around doing nothing was so boring. Even reading was boring, he had put away the novel in favor of watching the sunlight slowly trail up the wall.

The room lit up, causing Sans to perk up. Grillby chose to walk in through the door this time, Sans held up his arms to beckon him over. Grillby obligingly walked into his embrace, pulling Sans in for a toe curling kiss.

"… Hello."

"heya."

"… How was your day?"

"boring, i need to find something to do, there's only so long you can spend sitting around on your tailbone reading."

"… I don't know, that sounds nice."

"maybe as a break, but not for the rest of your life. but what about you? how was your day?"

Grillby sighed. "… Busy, as always."

"feel up to hanging out with my bro? he says he wants to."

"… I'm honestly surprised he waited this long." Grillby chuckled as he helped Sans down from the altar, then the pair walked hand in hand to Sans's room, where Papyrus was waiting for them. Just as Sans opened the door Grillby's flames cooled and calmed, changing from their bright yellow and white to a softer orange and golden yellow, the long mane flowing behind him growing shorter until it was a gentle flame over his head, though his clothes didn't change.

"hey bro, brought the hubby."

"HELLO. IT'S VERY NICE TO OFFICIALLY MEET YOU!" Papyrus cheerfully held out a hand to Grillby while Sans closed the door behind them.

"… Didn't we already meet at the Golden Lamb?" Grillby smiled indulgently as he shook Papyrus's hand.

"YES, BUT ONLY A FEW TIMES, AND YOU WEREN'T EVEN SANS'S BEAU BACK THEN. NOW YOU'RE MARRIED AND I HAVEN'T HAD A CHANCE TO GET TO KNOW YOU YET."

"… True, so what do you want to know?"

"FIRST OF ALL, SANS HASN'T TOLD ME WHAT I SHOULD CALL YOU YET." Papyrus shot a quick glare at Sans, who had settled down on the hearth and was idly playing with the fire sprites within while watching the other two interact.

"… I think the least confusing name would be Fiersome."

"THAT DOES MAKE SENSE. WELL THEN, WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING A GOD?"

".. Normal," Grillby replied quickly, a smirk forming on his face. "… What's it like being a mortal?"

"OH… HRM… THAT IS A GOOD POINT." Papyrus looked around the room, then brightened up and pointed to a statuette of Undyne. "YOU'VE MET THE OTHER GODS, RIGHT? WHAT ARE THEY LIKE?"

"… Undyne the Undying?" Grillby asked as he stepped closer to look at the statuette. "… Though I suppose this was made before she earned that title, she still has both her eyes."

"WHAT HAPPENED TO HER EYES?"

Grillby shook his head, "… She lost one to a human god during the war."

"WHAT WAS IT LIKE? FIGHTING IN THE WAR?"

"… Please, I'd rather not. It's still too recent."

"OF COURSE, I'M SORRY." Papyrus wrung his hands, looking around the room again. "WHAT ABOUT HER?"

"… Alphys?" Grillby asked as he looked at a different statuette Papyrus was pointing to. He shook his head, "… I saw her only a few times, and only briefly. Any god high enough to have statues made of them outside their own temples are too high for me to really know."

Papyrus smiled, "THAT'S ALRIGHT, I SUPPOSE THAT MAKES SENSE. OH! WHAT ABOUT YOUR DOGS?" He'd moved over to the bookcase, where a pair of dog shaped bookends sat.

"… That I can easily do." Grillby smiled as he brought a hand up to the side of his mouth. "… Brimstone! Firestorm!"

Sans sat up a little straighter, he hadn't thought to ask about the dogs yet himself. Now that Papyrus had reminded him, he couldn't help being just as curious and excited as Papyrus appeared to be, looking around the room eagerly.

Grillby moved over to the bed and sat down. "… Come sit with me, Love."

Sans happily got up and crawled into Grillby's lap while Papyrus kept looking around the room expectantly.

In the fireplace the fire seemed to swell, a pair of shapes burst out of it, then ran rampant around the room before settling down into the shapes of two dogs, both with fluffy tails wagging wildly. One went over to Papyrus and started begging for pets, the other came over to sniff carefully at Sans, then their tail started wagging even harder, their whole back end wiggling with the force of it.

Sans started petting the dog, "hey there, aren't you a little cutie?"

"… This is Firestorm, and I think she likes you."

"who's a good girl?" Sans cooed at her. Firestorm's whole body started swaying with how hard her tail was wagging.

"THEY'RE SO FRIENDLY!" Papyrus called with delight from where he lay on the floor with Brimstone happily settled on his sternum, tongue lapping at his face.

"… Of course, you're monsters, they're supposed to protect you." Grillby reached down to rub Firestorm behind her ear. "… Such good girls." Firestorm's tongue lolled out.

"they're sweet, i like them."

Firestorm wuffed, then moved closer until her warm snoot was pressed against Sans's middle.

"oh, heh, guess she just likes the kiddos. and here i thought it was my natural charm."

That seemed to get Brimstone's attention, she abandoned Papyrus to join Firestorm. The two dogs were soon eagerly trying to climb up on the bed to be closer to Sans and Grillby. Sans thought it was the sweetest thing.

"good girls."

* * *

AN: The hell hounds were a suggestion by Perville that for some reason I kept, which means I have to figure out how to deal with a pair of fluffy, excitable dogs! Why did I keep them around? Probably because they're utter sweethearts and I love them! And they love the triplets and will guard and protect them. They also love Papyrus because he's a sweetheart and everyone loves him. Paps! You have so many friends you don't even realize! D:


	7. The Holy Nap

"Sans, I wish to speak with you," Fieri called as he walked slightly faster than normal to catch up with Sans, who was heading from the living quarters into the temple proper, Firestorm and Brimstone following on either side of him with happily wagging tails.

"sure, walk while we talk or you wanna wait until we get where i'm heading?"

"This will work just fi-… what are you doing?"

Sans glanced up at Fieri, "walking?"

"Your arm." Fieri motioned to where Sans's right arm was hanging out of his half open outer robe rather than through the arm like a civilized person, or at least that's what Sans figured he meant judging from his tone.

"what about it, _char_?" Sans cocked a brow at him.

"Never mind, we have more pressing matters to discuss. The renewal ceremony is coming up shortly."

"has it been six weeks already?" Sans paused just outside the inner court to consider that, his free hand moving to caress his belly. Not that there was anything to feel, he wasn't even starting to show yet.

"Just about, I'm wondering how you intend to fix your sleeping habits before the ceremony, or do you intend to simply stay awake all morning and sleep after? I certainly hope it's not the latter, it would be terrible if you fell asleep in the middle of the ceremony."

"what?" Sans paused again, this time right in front of the altar. "what're you talking about? i don't plan on doing anything at all."

"Surely you plan on leading the ceremony, it's your duty."

"no, it's your duty, **head priest**. are you seriously saying you want me to lead a parade all the way around the city walls?" Sans shook his head dismissively, then turned around so he could boost himself tailbone first to sit on the altar, somehow getting on it without jostling his resting arm. Touching the altar, let alone settling his bony butt on it, always got him a few shocked looks from the priests, especially Fieri. It was hilarious. "nah, not happening."

"You were told when you first agreed to this that a bridegroom of the gods would be required to participate in all the major ceremonies and festivals."

"and lord fiersome himself, my lawfully wedded husband and father of my unborn children and the **god whom you serve**, told me i don't gotta do anything i don't wanna. and i don't."

"You're going to leave your poor husband high and dry during an important ceremony?"

"you're going to make a pregnant monster walk around the walls of the whole city?"

"If you weren't so lazy perhaps that wouldn't seem like such an impossible distance. Didn't you used to be a nightwatchman? Didn't you have to walk the walls every night?"

"i wasn't pregnant. with. **triplets**. back then. as i seem to need to keep reminding you."

Firestorm and Brimstone both whimpered and squirmed where they sat, looking between Fieri and Sans in confusion.

"It seems like a very sorry excuse for neglecting your husband."

"perhaps we should call in spookins and ask them for their professional opinion, since you won't seem to listen to the guy who's one job is handing out orders."

Papyrus came stomping in at that point, boots, clothes, and gloves still trailing bits of dirt and a few stay leaves. "I WAS TOLD THERE WAS AN ARGUMENT GOING ON?"

Fieri bristled, little sparks popping off his head. "How dare you track mud into Lord Fiersome's temple, let alone the inner court!"

A couple priests who had followed Papyrus in frowned, Sans did as well.

"OH, I'M SORRY…"

"no, how dare you talk to my bro like that."

"SANS, THERE'S NO NEED FOR THAT. FIERI IS RIGHT, I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN RID OF THE MUD BEFORE LEAVING THE GARDENS."

"You need to leave right now, before you track more dirt into the temple." Fieri pointed towards the entryway, a dark scowl over his features.

Papyrus turned and started walking out. Sans hopped off the altar to follow behind, though he paused briefly to scowl at Fieri. "if you really want to push the subject, we'll talk with spookins about it tomorrow. until then, this discussion is over, char fieri."

Fieri huffed and crossed his arms, Sans ignored him in favor of following after Papyrus, Firestorm and Brimstone trailing worriedly behind him. What a way to ruin the mood, Papyrus didn't need a jerk like Fieri pushing him around. Sans wondered what he'd have to do to replace Fieri, he was pretty sure that was within his power. Or Grillby's, at least.

"… -sten to him," one of the priests was saying as Sans caught up to them. "The gardens have never looked so good since you started working in them."

"Yeah," another priest agreed as they gave Papyrus's arm a pat. "The kitchen staff are all over the moon with how well everything's doing."

"and if it helps any, fiersome isn't going to care about a little dirt." Sans slowed down to amble up to the others, a placid grin firmly in place.

"OF COURSE! I ALREADY KNEW THAT. BUT! IT'S NOT HEALTHY TO KEEP ANTAGONIZING SOMEONE WHO IS CLEARLY AS STRESSED AS FIERI WAS." There was a pause as Papyrus seemed to think something over. "IS. WHICH REMINDS ME. SANS, ARE YOU OKAY? WAS HE BULLYING YOU?"

"nah, and even if he was i can bully him right back. don't worry about it."

"IT'S MY JOB TO WORRY ABOUT YOU!" Literally, so far as Papyrus was concerned. The gardens was just him puttering around like he did back home. He had basically made himself into Sans's personal assistant and spent most of Sans's waking hours fussing over him. "SPOOKINS SAID STRESS ISN'T GOOD FOR THE BABIES, IF FIERI IS STRESSING YOU OUT THEN WE NEED TO REMIND HIM THAT IT'S HIS JOB TO TAKE CARE OF FIERSOME, AND BY EXTENSION YOU AND THE BABIES."

Brimstone had pressed herself into Papyrus's side, he obligingly reached down to rub between her ears. The priests who had been comforting Papyrus and were still hanging around gave him a strange look, then shook their heads and turned their attention back to Sans.

"already working on that, we're gonna get spookins in on this first thing tomorrow to remind him what i can and can't do with three dead weights to lug around." Sans patted his belly for emphasis.

"I WISH YOU WOULDN'T TALK ABOUT MY NIBLINGS LIKE THAT, THEY MOST CERTAINLY ARE NOT DEAD."

"Yeah, that's pretty much inviting bad luck," one of the priests agreed.

Sans shrugged. "fine, let's talk about something else then. you okay?"

"I'M FINE, THOUGH I DO NEED TO GET CLEANED UP AND CHANGED, MY NIGHT WATCH SHIFT IS GOING TO START SOON." He opened his arms and leaned down, like he was about to give Sans a hug if he hadn't stopped short. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR ARM? YOU LOOK LIKE AN UNTRUSTWORTHY COPPER MERCHANT."

"what? it's comfortable. with triplets on the way it's so hard to get comfortable, are you really going to deny me even this?"

"YOU'RE NOT EVEN SHOWING YET."

"You'd better hurry, Papyrus, you're going to be late." The two priests giggled at each other, seemingly enjoying the show.

"THANK YOU FOR THE REMINDER. SANS, PLEASE TRY TO LOOK AT LEAST HALF WAY DECENT."

"alright, but i make no promises," Sans replied as he pulled Papyrus into that goodbye hug. Then Papyrus was striding away and Sans was left to return to the inner court, Firestorm and Brimstone pressed to his sides the whole way. The sun was nearly set now, he'd get to see Grillby soon. He sat back on the altar to watch the last remaining priest carefully sweep away Papyrus's muddy footprints.

A couple approached, a pair of dogs with a faint glow about them. Their tails perked up at the sight of him. "Hi Sans."

"(Hello, Sans.)"

"hey dogamy, dogaressa." Sans lifted a hand in greeting. The priest gave him a weird look, then swept the last of the dirt from the room and out the entrance. "you guys here for a reason?"

"Of course we are."

"(We need to talk to Fiersome.)"

"makes sense, no other reason to be here. don't suppose i can help?"

"Sadly no. Sorry, but we're going to have to take up some of your husband's time."

"(We hate to interrupt.)"

"nah, i get it. you got duties of your own. i'll just wait until you're done."

"Thanks, Sans."

"(You're a sweetheart.)"

Sans finally threaded his arm back into his sleeve so he could lean back comfortably while he waited, first for Grillby to show up, then for him and the Dogi to have their chat. Grillby was nodding quite a lot as the dogs laid out whatever their request or concerns were, they were standing just far enough away that Sans couldn't hear their hushed conversation. Then with one final wave they finally left. Grillby came over to the altar and collapsed in front of it, laying his upper body in Sans's lap. Firestorm and Brimstone both shifted to press against him, tails waving in greeting.

Sans started petting his husband's head, "you look exhausted."

"… I feel exhausted."

"then you should rest. when do gods even sleep? i don't think i've seen you so much as take a nap."

"… Gods don't need to sleep, usually." His arms came up to wrap around Sans's hips, his face nuzzling into Sans's squishy middle. "… Don't worry, the renewal ceremony is less than a week away."

"i'm guessing it'll renew you."

"… Yes, just as advertised." Grillby laughed, then shifted to be a bit more comfortable.

Sans continued to pet his head, just enjoying having his husband close. "and you honestly don't need me to help with that?"

"… No, not if you don't want to. The priests have been performing the ceremony for centuries without you, your presence won't change a thing."

"but do you want me to?"

"… I will admit I would be happy if you did, but isn't that bad for a pregnant mortal?"

"yeah, it's a bit far to walk, and i wasn't much for long walks even without kids to cart around."

"… Then don't worry about it. And don't let Char bully you either."

"speaking of him, and i'm not saying we'd have to do it right away, but what would it take to get him replaced? i'm starting to get tired of having to throw my weight around with him over every little thing."

"… I'm not sure if I'm surprised you lasted this long or that your patience didn't hold out longer."

"like i said, i don't plan on kicking him out right this second, i just want to know my options."

"… Just say the world and I'll appoint someone else. Or you can. Honestly, the priests have been taking care of themselves for the last couple decades, perhaps it's time I started paying them more attention."

"eh, you've got enough duties on your plate without worrying about five temples' worth of priests."

"… If you're really unhappy, you can always move to a different city. All of my temples are yours now, you can live at any of them."

"now that is something to think about. but in the mean time i'm happy to just spend time with you."

"… And I with you." Grillby snuggled all the closer to Sans.

* * *

The next afternoon, when Sans finally got up, he grudgingly went to find Fieri and find out if Spookins had been called or not. Fortunately, everyone was used to his odd sleeping schedule by now, Spookins and Fieri were chatting in the archive while waiting for him.

"Sans, there you are, good afternoon," Spookins greeted with a smile. "Fieri was just telling me about the situation."

"Yes, and Spookins agrees with me," Fieri preened.

"do you now?" Sans asked with a dangerous grin.

"In a manner of speaking," Spookins said with a casual wave of their hand. "A procession along the city walls is possible, but Sans will need to take frequent breaks to rest."

"Which we will be doing, we have to stop at every bonfire to restore it."

"That's not really resting."

"What?" Fieri asked in confusion, "He'll be stopped. Everyone has to stand still while the fires are restored."

"Standing still isn't resting, he'll need to actually sit down and rest as well."

Sans just sat back and let Spookins talk, a smug grin plastered across his face.

"How often?"

"Hmmm…" Spookins put a hand to the spot where their face and neck met. "You may have to run me through a practice ceremony to be sure, but I think after every bonfire would be best. Also it would be preferable for him to rest someplace quiet and secluded. Honestly, whatever we can do to reduce stress at this stage would be best. Every stage really, but once it becomes a little more obvious he's pregnant everyone will stop demanding so much of him." Spookins shot Fieri a quick glare.

"i'm right there, you know."

"Sorry, sorry." Spookins had the good grace to look chagrined. "It's just that I already knew you didn't want to do this ceremony, Fieri's the one who needs convincing."

"Stopping to rest after every bonfire, even if only for a few minutes-"

"I would rather he rest for a full fifteen minutes, and possibly eat or drink a little something. Are you still having trouble eating?" Spookins turned their attention back to Sans at the question.

"yeah," Sans admitted reluctantly. "nothing's all that appetizing."

Spookins patted his hand gently. "It's alright, it happens to a lot of monsters their first pregnancy. The important thing is to eat anyway, even if it's only a little."

"yeah, i'm trying." Sans sighed, it really was becoming harder and harder to eat. He decided he'd had enough of that line of thinking. "so, char, what's the conclusion on the renewal ceremony."

Fieri flinched at Sans's use of his first name, just as he always did. "Stopping to let you rest after every bonfire would take too long, we're supposed to finish the ceremony at noon."

"and you're not going to rope me into any of the other renewals before the kids are born."

Fieri grimaced, but nodded.

"or the one right after they're born, either."

"Yes, yes, you're in charge here."

"and don't you forget it."

"Now that that's settled," Spookins said with a muffled clap, "how about we turn this into a proper check up while I'm here." They hopped off their seat and picked up a bag that had been sitting next to it.

"sure, you know where my room is." Sans folded his hands into his sleeves as he and Spookins left the room.

* * *

AN: I never did find a place to put it in the meat of the fic, so a little explanation on the major festivals and ceremonies. The equinoxes and solstices are the major festivals, it's always a party and there's always a special sacrifice to the patron gods during their time of day. Oh! I think that's something I didn't mention earlier: the four elemental alignments line up to the four seasons and four times of day: earth, fire, wind, water; spring, summer, autumn, winter; dawn, noon, dusk, midnight. So the equinox or solstice that lines up with the major element of the god is the one that gets an extra special sacrifice the god usually chooses for themself.

The renewal ceremony happens right in between each solstice and equinox, which would be the six week mark. This one doesn't change, it's just a procession around the city's walls that stops at each watch fire and has a little prayer, a sprinkling of holy… well not water obviously. Holy spices in Grillby's case. Burn some incense (probably in one of those incense burners on the end of a chain being swung, those are sooooo cool looking). It's mostly to keep your patron god healthy, a weak or sickly god isn't going to be able to protect you. Families with their own patron gods (like the Dogi) also do a smaller version of these ceremonies on the same day.


	8. At Least Send Back the Platter

Sans sat in the rocking chair the overstuffed chair had been replaced with, something several people had assured him he would be infinitely grateful for soon enough. He'd shrugged, maybe he would and maybe he wouldn't. It definitely felt very domestic to be sitting by the fire with a pair of dogs laying nearby, ears perked as they listened to him hum and watched his horrible attempts at knitting.

That had been another suggestion along with the assurances, a suggestion Papyrus had heartily endorsed. It certainly was more interesting than sitting around reading old epics all day long. He had even considered inserting himself into the running of the temple just to see how much that would irritate Fieri. He might still do it, knitting was turning out to be harder than he thought. The yarn kept getting tangled up in his joints if he tried knitting without gloves, and he had a hard time controlling the yarn when he did wear gloves.

The room suddenly grew brighter, Sans dropped his work to smile up at his husband. "well hey there, stranger."

Grillby leaned down to put his weight on the rocking chair's arms, levering Sans forward into a kiss. "… I sure hope you're not kissing random strangers."

Sans chuckled, "never. you're the only stranger for me." He leaned forward to pull Grillby back into another kiss. It was cut short when Firestorm and Brimstone jump onto Grillby for their own greeting.

"… Hello Fire, Brim. Be good girls and let me kiss my husband."

Sans laughed as he watched the dogs cavort around Grillby, tails wagging wildly and lava-like tongues lolling. Eventually they settled down to sit on either side of Grillby, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. "they've been such good girls, keeping me company all day long." Sans reached for Brimstone, the nearest one, and gave her a little scritch behind the ears.

"… I'm very proud of you both." Grillby gave Firestorm a scratch too. "… So what's that?"

"oh, this?" Sans picked up the lumpy tangle of yarn he'd been working on. "it's supposed to turn into a scarf eventually, but i'm starting to think knitting isn't for me."

"… I hear it just takes some practice, I'm sure you'll make a fine scarf eventually."

"would you wear this?" He waved around the yarn atrocity for emphasis.

"… I'd gladly wear anything you made."

Sans's smile turned bashful and he waved a hand at Grillby in the "oh stop" gesture.

"… But if you want to take a break, I have a gift for you."

Sans dumped his project over the side of the chair and rocked forward to get up. Grillby grabbed his hands to help him up, not that Sans needed it yet. His balance was only starting to be off. "what is it? do you have it with you or is it in the temple?"

Grillby laughed as he backed up to the bed and sat down, pulling Sans into his lap. "… I have it here, but first things first…" He pulled Sans into another kiss, this one longer and deeper. Sans drank in Grillby's heat, as always a beautiful contrast to his own cold magic, one hand twined into the flames on Grillby's head, the other clinging desperately to his neck and shoulders, his own magic leaving sparks wherever he touched. All too soon the toe curling kiss ended, Grillby pulled back to let Sans catch his breath.

"tease," Sans accused.

"… I just wanted to give you a proper hello." Grillby's mischievous grin and wandering hands betrayed his innocent comment.

Sans untied his belt and pulled his robes open, rolling his eyes as gave Grillby free access to his belly. Grillby happily leaned down to coo at the barely showing bump and gently leave three little kisses against it.

"… Daddy's got a gift for you."

"i thought the gift was for me? should i be jealous?"

"… It's for all four of you," Grillby replied with a breathy laugh as he sat up straight.

Sans snuggled closer, moving one of Grillby's hands to lay over his exposed belly. "so what is it?"

"… We had a special sacrifice today in Stonewood." Grillby held up his hand, with a flash of flames a heavy platter made of silver with a rather large roast bird appeared. "… I thought you might like it."

Despite a complete lack of the digestive organs necessary for it, Sans's stomach gave a rumble at the sight of it. "holy shit, that looks really good."

Grillby set the platter in Sans's lap, "… I believe it's a pheasant."

Sans leaned forward and took a deep breath, "it smells really good." He looked around the platter. "uh… there didn't happen to be a knife sacrificed along with it?"

"… Oh, no. I didn't even think about that."

"eh, it's fine." He grabbed one of the legs and tore it off, then just shoved it into his teeth.

Grillby laughed before tearing off the other leg and eating it himself. "… This is pretty good."

"yeah, compliments to whoever made this."

"… It was sacrificed by a politician, so likely whatever chef she employs."

"should i be writing a letter of thanks?"

"… Probably not, I have the feeling it was meant to be a gift for Geoli."

"wait, what?" Sans pulled his hand away from where he had been pulling more meat off the bird.

"… Sometimes that happens, someone makes a sacrifice knowing it'll most likely go to the priests. She was making eyes at Geoli the whole time." Grillby took another bite of the leg he was working through.

"and you just took it? won't geoli be mad? i like geoli!"

"… It's fine, that's a risk petitioners take when they make a gift into a sacrifice. Besides, I'm fairly certain Geoli doesn't have an open relationship with their wife and isn't interested in Irene. And even if not, it's a little late now." Grillby motioned for Sans to keep eating.

Sans looked down at where the bird was missing both its legs, it really was too late now. Oh well, he'd write them a letter tomorrow. With a shrug, he went back to eating. They spent a while just working through the bird, tearing off pieces of meat, telling each other to try different cuts, idle chatter about their respective days. Sans had slowed down, starting to feel drowsily full, when he heard a plaintive whimper. He looked down to see both Firestorm and Brimstone with their heads pressed into the bed, occasionally licking their chops and giving Sans the biggest puppy dog eyes. Gathered around them were all the fire sprites that had taken up residence in his fireplace, even Balboa had inched over their plate and was teetering on the edge, ready to fall the short distance to the nightstand below.

"oh, right. sorry guys, didn't mean to leave you out." Sans started tearing off small bits of the little meat left clinging to the bird.

"… What are you doing?" Grillby put a hand over Sans's, stilling him.

"was just gonna feed the little guys."

"… Sans, this was a sacrifice to me. I might share it with Fire and Brim, they're in some way a part of me, but I'm not sharing what was offered to me with some random fire sprites."

"oh." Sans hesitated, looking down at all the huge, glimmering eyes staring up at him hopefully, the pair of hesitantly wagging tails. "is this uh… some kind of godly faux pas?"

"… I suppose that would be the best way to put it. Besides, didn't you already feed them earlier today?"

"sure, every meal."

"… Then they're fine. They don't need this."

Sans nodded and stared down at his lap as he placed his clenched fists in it.

Grillby grabbed his hand and held it up to his face. "… Hey, you're not in trouble, you didn't know. And even if you did, I understand that it doesn't mean the same thing to mortals." He pressed a kiss to Sans's still closed hand.

"i just can't stand to see anyone go hungry."

"… And they don't, I promise you."

Sans nodded and let his hand relax. Grillby gently kissed his palm, then started licking the hand. Sans gasped in surprise, eyelights blown wide as he watched Grillby pop a phalange into his mouth and suckle it. "… Such a messy boy," he mumbled around the finger.

"you weren't any better," Sans teased back. With his free hand he took Grillby's other hand and brought it to his face, where he actually opened his mouth and stuck a tongue out to lap up the mess the same way Grillby was.

Another whimper, a grumble, and the loud crackling of fire got both their attention. Sans looked down to see the dogs and sprites had crowded even closer as the plate tipped perilously close to falling right out of his lap.

"whoops, almost lost the rest of it." Sans picked up the plate and held it up and away from the eager dogs and sprites.

Grillby narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the sprites gathered around the dogs. "… Just how many sprites do you have in here?"

"not sure, more just keep showing up."

"… Right, time to put and end to this." Grillby shifted Sans out of his lap and bent down to gather up all the fire sprites. They sparked and popped in protest. "… No more, I've let this go on long enough. If you lot can't behave then you don't get to stay here." There was a chorus of disappointed snaps and a few more sparks from the sprites. "… No, you're going to stay in the outer court and that's final."

Sans watched as Grillby marched out the door, muttering reprimands to the fire sprites the whole way. Despite Grillby shutting the door, Sans pulled his robes closed, he didn't want the kids to get a chill. Firestorm and Brimstone were still pressed against the bed and alternated between whimpering and licking their chops while squirming in place.

"heh, sorry girls, not unless papa says so. but you can have pets until he gets back." He set the platter out of reach, then started petting the dogs, which they happily accepted even if they hadn't stopped eyeing the pheasant's remains. Grillby soon returned, not a fire sprite in sight.

"… There, now that that's taken care of…"

"heh, almost put on a show for all the little ones."

"… Speaking of," Grillby said cheerfully as he picked up the platter with what was left of their late dinner. He whistled, which got the dogs' rapt attention. "… C'mon, girls." He opened the door and set the platter down just outside it. Brimstone and Firestorm ran out into the hall and eagerly tore into what was left on the plate. Grillby shut the door. "… Now, where were we?"

Balboa gave a disgruntled grunt.

Exasperated, Grillby picked up a pillow and pressed it over the rock sprite. Sans laughed at that even as Grillby climbed back onto the bed and pulled him close. Sans threw his arms over Grillby's neck and pressed their bodies close for another kiss, magic tingling wherever they touched.

* * *

"… and i dunno, the yarn just keeps getting caught in my joints. and i don't think there's much i can do about that no matter how much i practice, i just don't think knitting is really for me."

Grillby hummed in agreement has he stroked Sans's bare spine. They were currently stretched out over the bed, Grillby on his back with Sans snuggled up next to him on his side. Grillby pulled him closer to quickly drop a kiss on his head. "… There's no shame in not being good at something you've never done before, even gods need practice. Most of us just have a century or two to get the hang of things before revealing ourselves to mortals." Grillby winked at Sans, who chortled and grinned up at him. "… That being said, there's no shame in giving up if you're not enjoying yourself."

"i know, but i want to at least try to finish the scarf, make an honest attempt and all that. heaven knows it would've been a useful skill with three kids to keep clothed."

".. There are plenty of other useful skills you can learn, if that's really what you're worried about."

"yeah, that's true. honestly, i'm starting to think paying more attention to how the whole temple works might be the best thing to try. i mean, isn't that usually what a spouse does? take care of the house, as it were."

"… While I'm happy to provide an easy life for you, I would be honored to have you take a more active hand in my temple."

"yeah?" Sans looked up to see Grillby gently gazing down at him, a soft crescent moon glowing white hot on his face. "can't hurt, i guess. and it'll be good to know how things work if i ever have to kick fieri out. he may have backed off after our little heart-to-heart, but he's just so… so him."

"… I don't understand why you bother keeping him around if he's that much trouble."

"because so far as i can tell he does a good job when he's not grumping at me or papyrus."

"… Sadly, it's true. He's a stickler for all these little things that mortals pay attention to, he keeps everything running and the offerings coming in."

"i dunno, i think you got more to do with that last part." Sans yawned, then rested his head more comfortably against Grillby's shoulder.

"… That late already?"

"hmmmm?"

"… I think it's time we put you to bed, you've been awake quite a while. Did you have a nap at all?"

"yeah, though they lose their tang when they're doctor mandated."

"… Are you having trouble sleeping?"

Sans shrugged. "same old story, tired but can't seem to stay asleep. especially when the sun rises, it always wakes me up."

"… Of course, you're an earth elemental and dawn is when your power peaks. But for now, how about I get you all nice and tucked in?"

Sans rolled onto Grillby and grumbled a protest as he clung to him.

"… You're tired and need rest, and if the sun rising really does wake you then you'll get a goodbye kiss when I go."

Sans huffed, then rolled off Grillby. "alright, fine, but only because you love me."

Grillby planted a soft kiss on Sans's forehead. "… Thank you, dearest." He got up then, piling the firm pillows around Sans and tugging him this way and that before pulling the warm blankets up and over him. Then he laid down next to Sans, stroking his skull to lull him to sleep. "… What was that song you were singing when I first arrived? I think I've heard it before."

"just a lullaby i used to sing to papyrus when we were kids. i think maybe our parents used to sing it to us before that, but it's been so long i can't really remember."

"… You can't remember your parents?"

"yeah, them or the song. i only know the first uh… what's the word? verse?"

"… Yes, that sounds right. Will you sing it for me?"

"i mean, i don't exactly got a great singing voice. or even a good one."

"… How else am I going to learn it?"

Sans looked down and away from Grillby, but then reluctantly started singing. The song was a bit melancholy, about the light dimming, but it ended with the promise of not being alone. He hummed the rest of the song, a barely remembered melody he sometimes almost thought he could remember the words to. Once he was finished, Sans shyly looked up at Grillby.

"… That was beautiful."

"oh, heh… thanks."

"… Tell me if I've got it right." Grillby sang the lullaby back to Sans, continuing to stroke his skull. As he dragged out the end of the song, Sans's eyes drifted closed and his breathing evened out. Grillby leaned forward to give him one final kiss on the forehead.

* * *

AN: I can't knit. I haven't even tried, though I've watched a few how to knit videos. It just… looks tedious and… I dunno? The motion looks like it would be unpleasant. I like crocheting, so I think I'll just stick with that. I can crochet socks if I want to, you can't stop me!

Everyone knows the way to a priest's heart is through ritual sacrifice to the god they chose to serve. Or sizable donations to their temple. XD But no, Geoli is a one woman monster, rest assured. And of course, me being as food motivated as I am had to have a bit with Grillby feeding Sans. It's cute and sweet and it's so nice that Grillby found something that Sans doesn't have to force himself to choke down. The babies liked it too, I'm sure.

And I'm sorry to anyone who wanted to be there for Sans to tell Fieri off, but it really was very boring. They both sat down and had a calm, rational discussion like adults and it ended with Fieri promising to calm his tits after Sans promised that he's not after Fieri's position. And I'm sure it'll stay that way so long as Sans keeps his nasal aperture out of how the temple runs.


	9. Time Flies When You're Busy as a Bee

A cheerful bunny with blue tinted fur entered the temple, easily dodging the priests running to and fro. Until he came to a particularly tall and bony one, that is.

"HELLO AND WELCOME TO LORD FIERSOME'S TEMPLE," Papyrus greeted cheerfully as he smoothly stepped in the other's way.

"Oh! Hello!" The bunny greeted just as cheerfully.

"I COULDN'T HELP BUT NOTICE YOU WENT RIGHT PAST ALL THE OTHER PRIESTS, IS THERE SOMETHING I CAN HELP YOU WITH?"

"No… I don't think there is?" The bunny cocked his head at a strange angle as he looked Papyrus up and down.

"bro, he's one of those v.i.p.s i told you about."

"OH, I DIDN'T REALIZE!" Papyrus stepped out of the way. "GO ON AHEAD THEN, BUT BE MINDFUL OF ALL THE PRIESTS, THINGS ARE A LITTLE HECTIC RIGHT NOW."

"Thank you, and have a wonderful day." The bunny waved before heading for the inner temple, priests and petitioners moving out of the way.

Papyrus gave one last wave. "I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU CAN TELL WHO IS OR ISN'T A V.I.P."

Sans shrugged, "maybe it's because i'm gri- fiersome's husband and you're only his brother-in-law?"

"OH! IT'S A GODLY THING?"

"yeah? you haven't noticed?"

"I'M NOT SURE WHAT THERE IS TO NOTICE. WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN?"

"it means they're a very important person."

Papyrus had to resist the urge to huff at Sans's unhelpfully true answer. "AND THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM RECENTLY!" Papyrus turned his head to watch a familiar dog couple weave their way through the crowded hallway.

"the fall equinox is coming up, it's a very busy time for everyone."

"YES, I SUPPOSE THAT'S TRUE. SPEAKING OF, ARE YOU READY?"

"yup, we practiced the ceremony and everything."

"AND YOU'RE STILL AWAKE EVEN THOUGH IT'S ALMOST NOON, I'M VERY PROUD OF YOU!"

"thanks. oh, i suppose if there's nothing else planned i should go do the noon sacrifice."

"I'M SURE THAT WOULD MAKE FIERSOME VERY HAPPY. AND THEN YOU SHOULD GO TO BED, YOU'VE BEEN UP ALL MORNING." And all night before that, Papyrus really was proud of Sans for trying so hard. If he'd known what being married would do for his brother he'd have tried pushing him towards someone ages ago.

"maybe, i'm feeling pretty awake right now. and being up a bit after noon is good too, imagine if i fell asleep right after the equinox ceremony."

"YOU WOULD!" Papyrus was torn between laughing at the mental image and glaring at Sans. Instead his face softened as he walked with Sans into the inner court, nodding to the dog couple as they left. "YOU REALLY AREN'T FEELING TIRED? YOU HAVE THE BABIES TO TAKE CARE OF AND SPOOKINS SAID NAPS ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR THEIR HEALTH."

"i really do feel fine, took a nap this morning and everything. i promise you, i don't want anything to happen to these little guys any more than you do." Sans rested his hands over his middle, caressing the quickly growing bump only visible through layers of clothing if you knew to look for it. His face softened into a gentle smile that used to be reserved just for Papyrus when he was still a babybones. Yes, Fiersome was definitely the best thing that had ever happened to Sans.

* * *

Papyrus was out in the courtyard happily throwing bones for Firestorm and Brimstone to fetch when Gem came running out to get him.

"Papyrus! You're needed in the inner court."

Papyrus froze, his arm drifting down far enough that Firestorm jumped up and snatched the bone he had been holding. "WHAT HAPPENED? IS EVERYONE OKAY?"

"Oh! Yes, everyone's fine. Sorry. Well… mostly fine. Head priest Fieri is a bit upset, but no one's hurt. It's just that Sans climbed into the Eternal Flame."

Papyrus tilted his head, "HE SHOULD BE ASLEEP RIGHT NOW?"

"He is. He drifted right off once he was in there. Though he interrupted a sacrifice to get in there."

"OH DEAR. FIERI?"

Gem nodded. "Fieri."

"WELL, WE BETTER NOT KEEP HIM WAITING ANY LONGER THAN NECESSARY." Papyrus strode to the door, the two fire dogs close on his heels and Gem drifting behind him. He braced himself on the door frame as he quickly brushed any stray dirt or leaves from his front and sides, then kicked it from his boots before heading through the door.

In the inner court Fieri, a citizen, and several priests were all gathered around the Eternal Flame. At a distance, of course, because the Flame had grown to take up half the room. Papyrus could feel the heat from the entrance. He walked right over to Fieri, "SO, SANS FELL ASLEEP INSIDE THE ETERNAL FLAME AGAIN?"

"Gah!" Fieri jumped, then glared up at Papyrus. "Don't sneak up on my like that!"

"I ASSURE YOU, THAT WAS NOT MY INTENTION AT ALL!"

Firestorm and Brimstone had propped their front paws on the rim of the urn holding the Eternal Flame, tails wagging slowly as they sniffed the inside.

"Well just… don't do it again." Fieri crossed his arms and turned his attention back to the Eternal Flame. "Please," he added quietly, scowl still firmly in place "And could you _please_ get your brother out? None of the rest of us can get close."

"WE'LL SEE," Papyrus said carefully before approaching the bonfire. The flames reluctantly shrank as he stepped forward, several priests sighed in relief as the heat died down with the flames. Papyrus looked inside the urn to see Sans curled up on his side, breathing softly, face utterly relaxed, even drooling a little. He was wearing the night shirt Papyrus had helped him change into, over that was his old, threadbare, stained house robe, it was missing its belt and lay only half over his legs, there was one slipper on his foot, the other lay abandoned at the base of the Eternal Flame. Brimstone and Firestorm both hopped into the urn, curling around Sans like Papyrus usually left them every afternoon when he put Sans to bed. He tilted his head back and forth as he took in the situation, then turned back to face Fieri and the others. "ARE YOU SURE MOVING HIM IS A GOOD IDEA? IT SEEMS LORD FIERSOME WANTS HIM LEFT ALONE."

"That… is a good point," Fieri conceded. "But there are still petitioners with requests and sacrifices to make."

"WELL, HAVE YOU TRIED JUST GOING ON LIKE NORMAL?"

"Just… going on like normal? With Sans asleep inside the Eternal Flame?"

"YES! JUST… JUST PRETEND HE'S NOT EVEN THERE." Papyrus stepped away from the Eternal Flame, it flared up again before settling down to its normal state. "GO ON, GET BACK OVER BY THE ALTAR AND JUST KEEP DOING," Papyrus waved his hands vaguely, "YOUR THING." As an afterthought he quickly bent down to scoop up the wayward slipper and placed it next to Sans.

The priests all moved out of the way and off to the side, Fieri took his place back beside the altar, the petitioner cautiously moved to stand in front of it. "May Lord Fiersome grant this monster's request," Fieri more asked than intoned.

A spark flew off the Eternal Flame and lit into a small flame over the petitioner's sacrifice, a bolt of undyed fabric Papyrus was sure would be useful for something.

"THERE, SEE? ALL THIS FUSS OVER SOMETHING SO SMALL. AND THE NEXT TIME LORD FIERSOME IS KEEPING YOU FROM DOING SOMETHING, MAYBE DON'T DO THAT SOMETHING." Papyrus smiled brightly, happy to have helped Fieri learn something new today. You were supposed to learn at least one new thing every day, after all!

"I shall take your advice into consideration." Fieri drew himself up stiff and tall. Papyrus didn't mind, he knew that Fieri was just a very formal monster and that was his way of saying 'thank you' for helping him learn something new. With a shallow nod Fieri sent the petitioner on their way.

"WELL, IF THERE'S NOTHING ELSE THAT YOU NEED ME FOR, I'LL JUST BE ON MY WAY THEN."

"Yes, thank you for coming so quickly. And for not tracking mud in this time."

Papyrus grinned broadly, his eye sockets sparkling with glee at the praise. "YOU'RE QUITE WELCOME!"

* * *

Sans came back to consciousness slowly, fighting it the whole way. He wasn't ready to wake up quite yet, he was warm, he was comfortable, and there was someone gently petting his skull. Alas, he couldn't fight the wakefulness any longer and finally opened his eyes. There was Grillby, perched on the edge of the urn as he stroked Sans's skull.

"well ain't you just a sight for sore eye sockets?"

Grillby grinned broadly. "… Good evening, dearest. Did you sleep well?"

Sans yawned and shifted to sit up. Firestorm and Brimstone perked up from where they had been laying, tails gently wagging. "yeah, best night's sleep i've had since our wedding night." He added in a brow waggle just to see that smile on Grillby's face.

"… I'm glad." He leaned forward to plant a chaste kiss on Sans's teeth. "… But somehow I don't believe you, the sun is only just setting."

Sans shrugged before gently tugging Grillby's robe, silently asking him to come closer.

"… If you're still tired you should go back to sleep."

"i'm not though, really, couldn't sleep now if i wanted to. more interested in getting my hello kiss." He tugged Grillby's robe a bit more insistently.

Grillby obligingly slid down and gathered Sans into his arms for a kiss. A nice, long, heated kiss. "… Will that do?"

"eh, it's a start."

Grillby chuckled, one hand gently stroking the side of Sans's face before leaning down to kiss Sans again. After they pulled apart a second time, Grillby rearranged them so he was leaning against the urn's shallow walls, Sans across his lap and pulled close to his broad chest. Firestorm and Brimstone both got up and circled the pair before laying down snuggled up on either side of them. Sans hummed happily and took a moment to relish his husband's presence.

"… So what happened? I thought the bed was comfortable."

"it is! or i thought it was. i dunno… i just couldn't seem to fall asleep. it was… it wasn't **un**comfortable."

"… That fills me with so much confidence."

"and i was cold? i think? i had a pile of blankets on and everything, but they didn't seem to help. almost went for the fireplace, but then i remembered how comfortable this thing is and came here."

"… Where were Fire and Brim?"

The two dogs perked up their heads at their names.

"think they were outside with papyrus."

"… And the fireplace didn't seem warm enough?"

"huh… now that you mention it i think that's why i came all the way out here. it almost looked tempting, but it also didn't?"

"… I think it was less you being uncomfortable and more the babies being uncomfortable." The hand that had found its way to Sans's belly, as one of Grillby's hands inevitably did, began caressing over it.

"the kids were cold?"

Grillby nodded, then paused for a moment before shaking his head. "… Not quite, they are demigods, I think only divine flames would do. You've been sleeping with my war hounds until now, right?"

"yeah, they snuggle right up to me."

"… They've been keeping the babies warm."

"but the kids're made of fire, how can fire even get cold?"

Grillby chuckled and kissed the crown of Sans's head before continuing. "… Small or weak flames can be snuffed out if it's cold enough, they can't make enough heat to keep themselves going."

"and you can't get much smaller or weaker than not even born yet."

"… Exactly."

Sans pressed all the closer to Grillby. "well shit, should i be wearing more layers during the day? or shove one of the fire sprites down my shirt?"

Grillby burst into loud laughter, hugging Sans close as he tried to speak through it. "… N-no, ha ha hah! You d-don't ne-heed to go tha-" a gasp, a wheeze, "that heh heh that far." He dropped his head onto Sans's shoulder to ride out the rest of the laughter.

Sans pouted. Or tried to, it was hard to be appropriately miffed when Grillby had such a warm laugh that tinged his flames in pale yellow and white and lit up the whole room. "i'm just trying to take the best care possible of our kids," he said as a smile tugged at the corners of his displeased grin.

"… You are, you are… you're doing just fine. You don't feel cold during the day, do you?"

"i don't think so? never really felt cold before, you gotta have skin for that."

"… If you're not uncomfortable then don't worry about it.

"alright, i trust you."

"… And why not just start sleeping here? If this is where you're most comfortable then this is where you should sleep."

"yeah, this thing's surprisingly comfy."

"… And it was rather nice having you so near all afternoon."

"it was really nice." Sans settled more comfortably into Grillby's embrace.

"… It's too bad you didn't get to see Char's face."

Sans snorted. "bet it was hilarious."

"… Very. He was just so shocked and appalled, and when he realized there was nothing he could do about it…" Grillby trailed off into warm chuckles.

"too bad i missed it, but i'm sure i'll get to see plenty more in the morning."

"… He'll likely have something to say," Grillby agreed. The pair drifted off into companionable silence.

Sans began fidgeting. "so that was my day, how was yours?"

"… Excellent, there was a very special noon sacrifice today."

"oh?" Sans waggled his brows again.

"… Yes, Bonnie had a roast suckling pig prepared, it was delicious."

"you tease!"

"… Are you jealous?" Grillby leaned down to whisper against Sans's acoustic meatus, "… Don't be, every sacrifice you give me is far better."

Sans couldn't help the blush that spread across is face. "really?"

"… Very much so. No matter what the sacrifice is, every one you lead is just… better."

"must be the whole bridegroom thing."

"… Probably. But I like to think it's just because you love me."

Sans pretended to gasp in surprise, "how did you know?"

Rather than answer, Grillby just pulled Sans into another kiss.

* * *

AN: Fun fact: heat is actually one of the necessary ingredients for a fire, most are just able to keep themselves warm so the fuel and/or oxygen is more of a worry. I once saw a video of a super cooled copper coil being used to put out an otherwise stable flame in a laboratory setting, it was pretty cool (heeeee). Wish I could find it to share.

So just imagine this: you're going to the temple to make a sacrifice, you get inside and you're up to the altar and it's all super fancy and impressive! And then you hear snoring. The priest tells you to just ignore it. XD


	10. 200 Year Old Gossip Rag

Sans was leaned up against his bed's headboard, a war hound snuggled up on either side of him as they both silently begged for attention while he read the personal journal of a priest now long since dead. It was surprisingly informative, he was learning a lot about how the temple was run back then (and honestly still was) as well as how the hierarchy worked.

Sans gasped in glee, "oh no he didn't!"

Okay, so it was more like reading a two hundred year old gossip rag most of the time, but he was learning a lot about how the temple had been run too. It was comforting to know he wasn't the only one to have difficulties with a head priest. Or in this case the head priests from two different cities having a rivalry that they seemed to be slowly losing their heads to. The lengths they went to to one up the other were getting so over the top Sans almost wished he could have seen it for himself. He was definitely going to have to ask Grillby about how he remembered it tonight.

Firestorm and Brimstone both whined and scooted up a little, Sans laid the journal against his now very noticeable baby bump to free his hands so he could pet the girls. There was a flurry of fluttering from the babies in response. Nothing quite hard enough to be considered a kick yet. Soon.

There was a knock at the door, then a priest poked her head in. "Hi, Sans! There's, like, some important dude from a neighboring city who came all the way here to give, like, some kind of big donation to the temple?"

"Catty!" Bratty said from just beyond the door with a giggle in her voice, "He's a wealthy merchant from Auldshoppe! He has a donation for the temple and, like, a gift just for Sans."

"so i'm gonna need to be in the temple to accept this guy's generosity," Sans asked flatly.

"Totally!" Catty agreed gleefully.

Sans sighed and picked the journal back up so he could move it to the side, then motioned Catty closer. "alright, gonna need a hand up."

Catty came in and pulled Sans off the bed, Bratty followed her in and shut the door behind her. Once upright, Sans leaned back to pop his spine. Firestorm and Brimstone hopped off the bed and circled the room, tongues lolling out happily.

"alright, let's get this show on the road."

"Dressed like that?" Bratty asked like she had been personally offended.

"Fieri would throw, like, three fits!" Catty laughed at just the thought of it, Bratty giggled in agreement.

"what's wrong with these? i wear these exact robes to lead ceremonies all the time."

"That's totally the problem!" Bratty headed over to the dresser and started digging around. "Catt, get those wrinkled clothes off him."

"Sure thing!"

Sans sighed, then held out his arms to help speed things along the best he could. The dogs must have realized they weren't leaving quite yet, Brimstone had climbed into the fireplace where she blended in with the fire kept burning for him, Firestorm was laid out on the hearth, tongue still lolled out happily and tail wagging constantly as she watched Catty and Bratty flit back and forth. Once Catty had him out of the perfectly fine robes he'd been wearing up until then (seriously, maybe the belt needed to be re-tied but that was it), Bratty approached with the box full of paints and brushes.

"no, absolutely not. you can just go put those right back."

"Awwwww… but Sans!" Bratty whined, "This dude's, like, a really special donor! Fieri wants to impress him."

"too bad, i'm not tarting myself up for some random merchant. in fact, i'm a married monster! i'm not tarting myself up for anyone but my husband." Sans crossed his arms and turned his face away just to prove his point.

"Fair enough," Bratty said with a sigh.

"Does that mean we get to, like, tart you up whenever you see Lord Fiersome?"

"no."

"Sure, whatever." Catty sighed in defeat.

Sans turned back to find Bratty carefully putting the box of paints away. He sighed in relief, causing another flurry of fluttering from his middle. He ran his hands gently over his bump in a way he hoped would sooth the babies.

One of the girls squealed. "Are they, like, moving?"

"Oh! Can we feel?"

"they're not moving enough for anyone else to feel yet. how about we just get this over with, fieri'll throw those three fits if we take too long dressing me up."

"He's, like, totally right," Bratty agreed. With another round of giggles, they both set about putting on layers and layers of robes in various shades of yellow, pale orange, and white. Sans was just grateful they hadn't decided his undershirt needed to be changed too. Eventually they finally, finally! helped him into a pair of soft soled shoes with an appropriately fancy set of buckles.

"alright, all dressed. can we get going now?"

Bratty shot him a sheepish grin from where she was standing next to the dresser, already rifling through the drawers of the jewelry box sitting on top. Sans just groaned.

"can i at least sit down for this part?"

"Like, of course!"

Catty pulled the short stool they used to use to dress him

(it had been tucked away in a corner since he'd barely started to show and his balance had been shot) out and scooted it next to Sans. It was better than standing the whole time, even if he'd need help up again once they were done. With Catty's hands holding him stead and keeping his robes straight, he sank onto the stool and let his shoulders slump. Catty went to go join Bratty as they sorted through the various pieces of jewelry.

They came back over with a few pieces of jewelry, fortunately nothing quite so overblown as what he'd had to wear for the wedding. A circlet, which was just a necklace that went on his skull so far as he could tell, and a necklace that only matched because the jewels on both were yellow and orange. Thankfully they didn't try to shove any rings on his fingers or add any jeweled chains to his sash, though Catty did pin a huge, glittering broach to the sash once he stood up again. And then they were finally, finally, FINALLY! done. Now he just had to go meet this wealthy donor and accept whatever gaudy gift he was being given. Great.

Fieri gave him an impatient frown when Sans finally waddled into the inner court, Catty and Bratty strutting proudly behind him, but otherwise made no comment. A quick gaze up and down his outfit and a nod of approval had Sans releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. At least he wouldn't have yet another argument with Fieri later. To be fair, the arguments had been happening less and less often as time went on. Maybe he was growing on Fieri, or maybe the head priest finally realized Sans didn't want his job and wasn't a threat. Well… wasn't as much of a threat as he seemed to think he had to treat Sans as.

The dogs settled on either side of the altar while Sans turned to hop butt first onto it. He wondered how much longer until he was going to need a stool to get up there. Honestly, he was kind of surprised he still could, and judging from the impressed looks on Catty and Bratty's faces they felt the same.

"I take it Catty and Bratty told you what's going on," Fieri said more than asked.

"wealthy merchant, donation, and a gift just for little old me."

"Right. But must you sit on the altar? It's so disrespectful." Ah, even if they weren't going to argue about his appearance it seemed Sans just couldn't escape the nagging.

"gifts go on the altar, the gift is for me, so he can just set it right in my lap and on the altar all at once. besides, if fiersome really didn't like it he'd ask me to stop, and he hasn't."

Fieri sighed, but nodded before taking his place next to Sans and the altar. He waved the other priests into position, most emptied out of the inner court, leaving just Catty and Bratty standing on either side of the entryway. Sans crossed his ankles and let them sway forward and back as he waited for this important donor to show. His hands drifted down to his belly, where the kids were squirming around excitedly like they always did in the inner court.

A very well dressed horse flanked by two birds carrying large, wooden boxes came in. Their eyes locked on Sans, the usual looks of surprise at seeing someone actually sitting so casually on the altar of the city's patron god crossed their faces. One of the birds looked nervously at the other. All three bowed their heads, Fieri and Sans bowed their own back. San's brow furrowed in concentration, that horse looked kind of familiar for some reason.

"Welcome, travelers, to Lord Fiersome's temple," Fieri started.

The horse took one more step forward, but rather than introduce himself like most donors did, he pointed a hoof at Sans and scowled. "That skeleton is a liar and a scam artist."

Oh.

Well shit.

Fieri bristled, sparks popping off his head and thin wisp of black smoke trailing from his mouth as he sputtered, "How dare you!" indignantly at the horse.

"He used to live in Aultshoppe, and while there he ran every scam you can imagine and made up a few new ones while he was at it. He lied, cheated, stole, and swindled everyone he ever met there." The birds behind him were nodding along while glaring at Sans.

"You will stop this nonsense at once! He is Lord Fiersome's lawfully wedded husband-"

"Are you sure that's not a scam too?"

Fieri angrily motioned towards Sans, who was hunched as small as he could make himself, sitting on the altar. "If this is a scam it's a pretty damn convincing one!"

"He stole an entire house! No one ever figured out how he moved it."

"That's enough! You need to leave, right now." Fieri stepped between the horse and Sans, hands on hips as he glared contemptuously up at the other monster.

"And you need to listen, but we knew you wouldn't."

The two birds dropped their boxes, which turned out to be filled with rocks and wadded up paper, and lunged for Fieri. There was a brief struggle as they pulled him off to the side of the room, a brief flash of bullets that sputtered out when Sans gasped at the sight of them. Catty and Bratty were just as easily bustled over with Fieri. There were more sounds of struggles from out in the hall, Sans had a glimpse of priests being herded away by more monsters with neatly arrayed bullets in orderly patterns. Then his vision was blocked by the horse coming back to stand in front of him, a precise arc of bullets around him like a geometric halo. Firestorm and Brimstone whimpered at Sans's feet, nervous and fidgeting in place.

Whoever these people were, they were trained fighters. The priests were not. And why would they be? They had no reason to fight, who would attack a temple? A human maybe, but no monster in their right mind would ever desecrate holy ground in such a way. The war hounds at his feet would be just as useless as the priests, they had been born of a war between monsters and humans, literally made to protect monsters. They would never attack one, not even to protect another. After all, monsters never attacked each other, that was such a human thing. And worst of all, they couldn't even intimidate these attackers, they were invisible to mortal eyes.

"Well," the horse sneered as he got closer, thankfully not close enough to touch the altar, "nothing to say for yourself, you gutter trash?"

"considering how likely you are to listen, i thought i'd save you from being a hypocrite." Sans felt beads of sweat forming on his skull and sliding down it.

The horse huffed, then took a step closer. He was nearly within arm's reach. "Let's show everyone here your true colors."

Sans's arms tightened over his swollen middle, "are you threatening a pregnant monster?"

The horse scoffed dismissively, "I'm not eve sure you're really pregnant. I mean really? Triplets? That's overselling it."

There was a strange heat and pressure in Sans's left eye socket, the world lit up in a strange flickering as he lifted his left hand a loud snap echoed through the room. He summoned his own array of bullets, suddenly glad for the practice when he and Papyrus were just teenagers. Bones in a pattern alternating in sharp blue and the usual pure white filled the space between him and the horse, easily three times as many bullets as he had up. Behind him he felt five more constructs materialize, these ones far more of a drain than even the field of bullets. They gave off five high pitched whines. The horse's face went pale.

"wrong answer, bucko." One after the other five beams of blinding white light shot at the horse, who scrambled to dodge out of the way. Firestorm and Brimstone were howling. Sans grabbed the horse's now blue soul and with a flick of his wrists flung it at the wall. Another flick and he crashed into the ceiling, the floor, the wall again, a different wall, back on the floor, another wall, and with each impact the horse gave out a choked cry.

Papyrus came running into the room, he paused for only a brief moment to take in the room with faintly glowing eye sockets before barging through Sans's protective array and up to the altar. He took both of Sans's left wrists in his hands, another holding his right wrist, the last hand gently cupping Sans's face and trying to angle him to look up at Papyrus rather than the bastard he was currently holding against the far wall.

"SANS, THAT'S ENOUGH. I'VE GOT IT FROM HERE, I WON'T LET HIM HURT YOU."

"he threatened my kids."

"AND THAT WAS VERY WRONG OF HIM, BUT YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH. YOU'RE USING TOO MUCH MAGIC, YOU'LL MAKE YOURSELF SICK." Papyrus paused, waiting for Sans to let the asshole go. "THIS ISN'T GOOD FOR THE BABIES! LET. HIM. GO."

"yeah… yeah, okay." Sans relaxed, releasing his magic. His bullets dissolved into spent magic, his hands went limp as the horse dropped to the floor with one last grunt. Papyrus turned and grabbed his soul in blue before gently sliding him out of the room. The two birds followed shortly.

Sans slumped forward into Papyrus's chest, suddenly exhausted.

"THERE, YOU'RE SAFE NOW. I WON'T LET ANY OF THEM HURT YOU, OKAY?"

Sans couldn't muster up the energy to respond, instead he leaned more heavily into Papyrus.

"SANS?"

"m'terred," Sans slurred. He closed his eyes.

* * *

AN: I bet you guys thought it was just gonna be 13 chapters of domestic fluff. *Laughs evilly* Nope! The boys' past comes back to haunt them! I did drop a few hints here and there that their past was a bit sketchy, that sure was fun. You know what else was fun? Having Sans give that asshole a bad time. And yeah, I should probably give him a name or something but eh, the guy isn't going to be in the rest of the fic so who cares?

Speaking of the rest of the fic, the next couple chapters are going to be long. Really long. Hope y'all are ready for a nice, big, meaty chapter where hopefully the characters can have some of what just happened explained to them.


	11. The Waiting Game

Grillby had arrived just in time to watch Sans relax in his brother's arms, a monster pinned against the wall falling to the floor, bumping into several blue bones on the way down. Grillby felt his mind grind to a halt, caught halfway to becoming corporeal as he watched the scene continue to unfold before him from the Eternal Flame. Papyrus had sprouted an extra set of arms at some point, though only one of them had sleeves. An odd thing to notice, Grillby thought distantly. In Papyrus's multi-limbed grip was Sans's own wrists, all three of them. He seemed to have a second left forearm sprouting from his elbow.

Then Papyrus twisted around to face the fallen monster and point at them, causing them to slide out of the room without being touched. That was… how had… mortals couldn't… what?

What?

Sans falling limply forward into Papyrus's embrace finally snapped Grillby into action. He rushed to become corporeal right next to the altar, where Papyrus was awkwardly holding Sans upright so he didn't tumble off. He noted distantly that they both had the normal amount of arms again. He thinks he feels relief.

"… What happened? Is Sans alright? Was anyone hurt? Was it a human?" He put an arm around Sans, trying to help keep him steady. Firestorm and Brimstone whined from where they circled the altar, still agitated and confused.

"SANS IS ALRIGHT, HE JUST TIRED HIMSELF OUT. THOUGH PERHAPS WE SHOULD SEND FOR SPOOKINS JUST TO BE SAFE."

"Papyrus wh-what was… did you just… and Sans…" Fieri stumbled up to them, trailing off in confusion as he glanced back at the room's entrance.

Grillby looked over as well, finding the Dogi hovering in the entryway with axes held defensively in tight grips. He didn't have time for this! He gathered the magic needed to make himself appear before mortal eyes, adding in a bright flash right at the end to get everyone's attention. "… Char Fieri, head priest of this temple, tell me what happened."

"Your lordship!" Fieri rushed to bow, stumbling to his knees in the process. He seemed to decide that was a better position and firmly planted his hands on the ground.

Grillby turned to Papyrus, "… Move him to the flame, please." He motioned to the urn before turning his attention back to Fieri, who was peeking up at him. On a silent command, the two war hounds moved to sit primly on either side of him, now also visible to mortal eyes. "… I gave you an order, priest."

"There was a traveler from Auldshoppe," Fieri said quickly, looking back down at the ground.

"… Oh get up, I can't hear you with your nose in the dirt."

"There isn't any dirt," Fieri grumbled before awkwardly climbing to his feet. He quickly brushed down his robes, then bowed his head to Grillby again. "There was a traveler from Auldshoppe, he claimed to be a wealthy merchant with gifts for the temple and for… S-Sans." Fieri took a moment to take a deep breath. "He accused Sans of being a liar and a scam artist, then threatened him with bullets. I'm not entirely sure what happened next, but I'm fairly certain Sans defended himself." Fieri glanced at the room behind them, Grillby followed his gaze to see scorch marks in several places on the floor. "Then Papyrus came in to calm him down."

Grillby nodded, that's about where he came in. "… You didn't actually see Sans defend himself?"

"He… it was hard to look right at him, like looking through a mist at a bright light. But I did see his bullets." Fieri looked away, behind Grillby, then back at the god. "They were blue."

Grillby nodded. "… I saw."

"But that isn't possible, is it?"

It shouldn't be. Nor should any of the other things he'd just watched Papyrus do. Neither should a lot of other, smaller things he'd watch both the brothers do since he'd brought Sans into his home. There was something strange about the Skeleton brothers, something he'd seen hints of for quite a long time and had simply ignored because they'd seemed so insignificant back then. Musings for a later time, right now he had a job to do.

"… Have the city guard been sent for?"

"Oh, I don't know, that's a good question."

"… Send someone to bring the guard here and take the attackers into custody, then clear out the temple, send everyone home. Have the guard close the gates. My other cities as well."

"Your lordship?"

"… I cannot afford to have my attention scattered at the moment. Now do as I bid."

"Yes, your lordship." Fieri bowed again, then grabbed Papyrus by the arm. "Come along, Papyrus, we need to clear out the temple."

Papyrus did not so much as budge when Fieri began trying to drag him out. "BUT… SANS…"

"Is in good hands, come along."

Grillby relaxed his aura as Papyrus allowed himself to be pulled from the room. He would need to talk with Papyrus himself later. The girls were sent to guard Sans's rest, contritely laying themselves out by the base of the Eternal Flame. They weren't in trouble, nothing that had happened was their fault. He would make sure to tell them that first chance he got.

"We heard the story," Dogamy said.

"(Are Sans and the puppies going to be okay?)"

Grillby glanced back at the urn Sans was currently resting in, nestled in his own flames, surrounded by them. Grillby used them to briefly check over Sans, then nodded in satisfaction before turning back to the Dogi. "… He tired himself out and is resting now, they're fine."

A distant, "I THINK I WOULD NOTICE SUDDENLY SPROUTING AN EXTRA SET OF ARMS!" floated in from the hallway outside.

"There's more to the story than Fieri told, isn't there?"

"(We felt the magic being used, that was too powerful to be from a mortal.)"

"… I felt it too, but I'm not sure we'll get any answers until Sans wakes." Though that wouldn't stop him from talking to Papyrus the first chance he had.

"Go keep watch over him."

"(We'll keep watch just outside.)"

"… Don't you have to get back to your household? What about the family you protect?"

"They'll be fine, they aren't going anywhere right now."

"(And neither are we.)"

"… Thank you, friends."

The Dogi nodded, then went to go stand guard over the entrance. He watched for a moment as they situated themselves on either side, talking with the other local lesser gods that had gathered in the hallway. Then he turned and went over to the bonfire, crouching down before the girls.

"… What happened isn't your fault, I don't blame either of you at all. You were always meant to protect monsters from humans, not other monsters."

They both whimpered and licked his outstretched hands.

"… You called me, you did good. You're both good girls."

Brimstone's tail started wagging cautiously at the praise, Firestorm just looked all the guiltier.

"… I mean it, you're both such good girls."

Firestorm's tail gave a slow, shallow wag. It was a start, he'd have to remind them they did well once things settled again, hopefully seeing Sans awake will help them get over this.

Grillby settled on the edge of the urn, gently petting Sans's skull as he rested. There he waited.

* * *

The afternoon eventually passed, tense as it was. Grillby was grateful for the Dogi standing guard, he could feel the masses of lesser gods milling about in the hallway outside, hurrying in and out of the temple as they frantically asked questions no one had the answers to. The Dogi kept them out, explaining the situation the best they could in his stead. They also didn't attempt to keep Papyrus out, he would come into the inner court from time to time to fuss over the still sleeping Sans. The first time Grillby had grabbed onto his robes before he could flit away again.

"… Has something like this ever happened before?"

"YES, UNFORTUNATELY IT'S NOT THE FIRST TIME SOMEONE HAS BEEN IRATE WITH SANS FOR… VARIOUS REASONS. OR DID YOU MEAN HIS CURRENT STATE? ALSO YES, HE'S UNFORTUNATELY TIRED HIMSELF OUT LIKE THIS BEFORE. USUALLY BECAUSE OF AFORE SAID IRATE PEOPLE. THOUGH HE'S NEVER BEEN PREGNANT BEFORE. ARE YOU SURE WE SHOULDN'T SEND FOR SPOOKINS?"

Grillby wasn't so sure Spookins would be of much help, he shook his head. "… I checked on the children already, they're fine. And you think Sans is fine?"

"OH YES, HE JUST TIRED HIMSELF OUT. LET HIM REST AND HE'LL BE BACK TO SPOUTING TERRIBLE PUNS IN NO TIME."

"… That's good." Grillby slumped a little. "… But about the things your brother and you did, you can both do all that?"

"OF COURSE! WE ARE BROTHERS, AFTER ALL. MOST OF IT WE FIGURED OUT BY PRACTICING TOGETHER."

He was about to ask about the arms, then remembered what Papyrus had said to the others earlier. He hadn't even seemed to notice them, he didn't seem to think any of what he'd done was strange. To him it probably wasn't. Grillby let him go then, turning his attention back to his sleeping husband.

Now the sun had set and a hush had fallen over the temple. Sans still had yet to wake and the other gods had all returned to their homes when nothing else changed. Grillby wasn't soothed by the quiet, there was a tenseness in the air as he waited for Sans to stir. The Dogi felt it too, refusing to leave their self appointed post. Even Papyrus seemed to feel it, still flitting to and fro despite having nothing to actually do.

Then Grillby felt it. The watch fire over one of the gates flickered, then died down to nearly embers as something passed over it. Grillby tensed, he felt no ill intent and there was no alarm raised, but it still unnerved him. He felt other flames of his, smaller ones posing as fire sprites in his favorite restaurants and a few in small shrines kept in some homes, dimmed as whoever this was passed, then sprang back to life as if nothing had happened.

A lesser god ran up to the Dogi, a water elemental who guarded a spring on the outskirts of the city. She gasped, then called over their crossed axes, "Lord Gaster approaches."

Grillby felt his own flames flicker and die down until he looked more like Fieri than even his own mortal guise. "… W. D. Gaster, he who walks the void between stars, high god of magic and divination, adviser to and friend of King Asgore himself… **that** Lord Gaster?"

The water elemental nodded.

Grillby looked down at Sans with a mix of awe and horror, then back up to the water elemental and the other gods gathering behind her. "… We must prepare to receive him." He got up and walked toward the others, herding them out into the hall.

"Lord Gaster himself?" Dogamy whispered in awe.

"(What could bring one of the most powerful high gods here?)"

"… Hopefully he will tell us himself."

Grillby tried to compose himself, stoking his flames and smoothing down his robes. The Dogi moved to one side of the hall, standing before the pillars, and stood at attention. Grillby motioned for the other gods present to do the same, they quickly lined up on either side. More gods came stumbling in, all babbling about the approaching high god before quickly joining the others. Grillby nodded, satisfied with their imposing figures nearly blotting out the columns they stood in front of.

They were nothing on the high god himself.

Lord Gaster stepped into the temple, taller than the highest building and an aura wider than any river. Grillby knew that gods could bend space to suit their needs, it was how he managed to fit inside his own temples after all, and yet he still couldn't fathom how a god with such an imposing presence could possibly fit into his small, humble temple. Lord Gaster looked around himself, nodded in what Grillby hoped was approval, then approached. Grillby felt his knees tremble.

Lord Gaster had a face that appeared to be carved from a pale wood, Grillby could just make out the grain of it as he drew near. There was a crack in the wood that led from a drooping eye up to disappear over the curve of his bald head. The other eye was leaking a dark, glittering liquid. Both eyes were hollow voids lit up from within by a pair of bright lights like stars. Or Sans's eyes. From robes that were dark as midnight (though the longer he stared at them the more he thought he saw winking lights and swirling, colorful clouds) came a set of hands clasped casually in front of him. Those weren't the hands he held towards Grillby in greeting. Neither were the set resting causally at his side.

"HELLO-"

Grillby dropped to his knees and bent forward in a deep bow, much like Fieri had earlier that very day. The rustle of robes and thunk of knees hitting stone told Grillby the other local gods had followed his lead.

"AH YES, THE FORMALITIES. AHEM. GREETINGS, LORD FIERSOME."

"… Greetings, Lord Gaster. Welcome to my humble temple."

"AND A LOVELY TEMPLE IT IS, VERY HOMEY. I QUITE LIKE IT."

"… Thank you." Grillby stayed bent over, unsure what to do next. He'd only ever caught glimpses of the high gods during the war, he had no idea what to do here and now.

There was a swish of fabric and the clearing of a throat, Grillby chanced a glance up. Lord Gaster had leaned forward and offered a hand to Grillby, he looked up at the offered hand, just barely holding himself back from touching it. The fingers were thicker, ball jointed, and clearly carved from wood to mimic a more fleshy looking creature, but the palm was all too familiar. Four pieces held together solely by magic, a four pointed star shaped hole in the center where the pieces didn't quite touch. Grillby gulped.

"I THINK WE'VE HAD ENOUGH FORMALITIES FOR NOW, DON'T YOU AGREE?"

Grillby nodded and accepted the help getting up. "… What uh… why… that is… how can I help? You?"

Lord Gaster smiled and stood straight, his arms shuffling as pairs moved to take up various positions, one disappeared altogether behind his back. "EARLIER TODAY I SENSED SOMEONE USING SOME VERY POWERFUL MAGIC, I WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE SOONER BUT IT WAS A BRIEF DISPLAY AND TOOK SOME TIME AND DIVINATION TO TRACK DOWN."

Grillby nodded.

"I WAS QUITE SURPRISED TO RECOGNIZE THE MAGIC TOO, I THOUGHT MY CHILDREN HAD BOTH BEEN KILLED IN THE WAR."

Grillby's knees trembled and threatened to give out on him again.

"PLEASE, WILL YOU SHOW ME TO THEM?" One pair of hands clasped together in front of Lord Gaster, as if Grillby could possibly refuse.

"… He's this way." On shaking legs, Grillby turned and led Lord Gaster into the inner court. Firestorm and Brimstone perked up at his entrance, then shot out of the room, claws scrabbling for traction as they rounded to race into the living quarters behind the temple.

"OH MY, WAR HOUNDS?"

"… Sent to fetch someone I think you should meet."

Lord Gaster looked him up and down skeptically, then bent down to get through the entryway. Grillby watched as Lord Gaster looked around curiously before wandering over to the Eternal Flame. He gasped and knelt down to over over it. "SANS! OH MY SWEET LITTLE CHILD, LOOK HOW YOU'VE GROWN." A few hands reached into the bonfire, Grillby could feel the other push his flames aside to gently caress his sleeping husband. Lord Gaster paused briefly, then sent an inquisitive pulse of magic through Sans Grillby only felt because of his flames. Gaster looked over his shoulder at Grillby, his good eye half lidded. "I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION YOU HAD RECENTLY MARRIED A MORTAL."

"… So was I." Grillby clasped his hands behind his back to hide their trembling.

A hand came up to cover Lord Gaster's mouth, his eyes open wide in shock. "WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM?"

Grillby shook his head, "… I don't know."

Papyrus barged into the room, followed quickly by Firestorm and Brimstone. Grillby quickly thanked the girls and dismissed them.

Lord Gaster gasped, a hand reaching towards Papyrus. "PAPYRUS?"

"YES, THAT'S ME. HELLO. IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU…?" He looked nervously between Lord Gaster and the urn he knew Sans was still sleeping in.

Lord Gaster's arm drooped, "DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE ME?"

"NO? SHOULD I?"

"… Papyrus, this is Lord Gaster, high god of magic."

"OH! I'VE SEEN SO FEW DEPICTIONS OF YOU! BUT THAT'S NO EXCUSE, OF COURSE I SHOULD RECOGNIZE ONE OF THE HIGH GODS. IT'S VERY NICE TO MEET YOU, LORD GASTER." Papyrus gave a quick, little bow. "BUT WHY ARE YOU HERE? OH! ARE YOU GOING TO HELP SANS RECOVER FASTER?"

"I HOPE TO DO THAT AS WELL, YES. I FELT HIM USING POWERFUL MAGIC AND CAME TO FIND HIM, I DIDN'T DARE HOPE YOU BOTH LIVED." Tears welled up in Lord Gaster's eyes. "MY LITTLE BABY, ALL GROWN UP. BUT WHY ARE YOU WEARING THAT MORTAL GUISE?"

"I AM MORTAL?" Papyrus said in confusion, stepping away from Lord Gaster's reaching hand.

"NO, YOU'VE NEVER BEEN MORTAL. HAVE YOU BOTH BEEN LIVING LIKE ONES THIS WHOLE TIME? WHERE'S TERRA? WHERE'S YOUR MOTHER?"

"OUR PARENTS WERE KILLED WHEN WE WERE CHILDREN, DURING THE WAR. WE DON'T… WE NEVER… IT'S ONLY EVER BEEN JUST US." Papyrus shook his head in confusion.

A few of the tears slipped free and slid down Lord Gaster's face, one hand came up to hide his eyes. "I THOUGHT AS MUCH, MY DEAR TERRA." The hand left Lord Gaster's face, joining it's pair to be held out to Papyrus. "BUT I'M STILL HERE, YOUR FATHER'S STILL HERE, PAPYRUS. PLEASE."

Papyrus looked hard at the approaching hands, though Lord Gaster didn't try to touch him. Papyrus walked a little closer, looking the hand nearest hand up and down. He pulled off one of his gloves and held his own hand up in comparison. Papyrus started trembling, tears gathered in the corners of his eyes before streaming down his face. He rushed into Lord Gaster's embrace.

* * *

AN: So many hints laid down. So many more I wanted to lay down (like mortal monsters can only do white bullets and only really powerful gods can do soul magic or the fact Grillby never actually made it so either brother could see gods) that I couldn't find a way to fit in without dragging the story off in really weird directions. Funny coincidence: all the monsters with weird typing quirks ended up gods. I'm not counting Catty and Bratty, that's just being valley girls. I talk like that, it's not a typing quirk.

Next chapter is also going to be really long. Really, really long! Sans gets to wake up to a very interesting situation.


	12. Meeting the Family Again

Sans woke up faster than he had in years, something pulling insistently at his sleeping mind. He grunted and shifted as he tried to figure out what had woken him. The kids were squirming, but that was nothing new. He was in the Eternal Flame, also nothing new. The three solid hands resting on him were new. So was the sound of Papyrus crying.

"hhhh… bro? wha?" Sans shifted, weakly attempting to lift the stranger's hands from him. Where was Grillby? Where were the girls? Surely they wouldn't have let anyone dangerous close. If whoever this was had their hands inside the Eternal Flame they had to be a god.

"SANS!" Familiar hands touched him next to the stranger's, gently moving his shoulder down until his head rolled mostly upright. He blinked up to see Papyrus's blurry face next to someone he was pretty sure he'd never seen before. Right? "SANS, ARE YOU ALREADY AWAKE? HOW DO YOU FEEL?"

"tired," Sans replied simply. He struggled to sit up, assisted by Papyrus. "where's gr-… fiersome?"

"… I'm here, Sans." And he was, hovering in the crowded space around the rim of the Eternal Flame's urn.

Sans reached for him, pulling him in for a kiss. Grillby didn't resist, simply put a supporting hand behind Sans's skull while Sans threw his arms around Grillby's neck and happily drank in his heat. Thankfully, all the extra hands let him go once the kiss started. Sans heard a squeal and a quiet "AREN'T THEY JUST ADORABLE TOGETHER?" Sans ended the kiss, resting their foreheads together instead.

"… How are you feeling?"

"better now that you're here."

Sans turned his head to get a better look at the stranger, awake enough now that his vision had cleared up. Still vaguely familiar, still no clue who he was. "who's this?" He whispered to Grillby.

"… Lord Gaster," Grillby whispered back.

"oh shit!"

"SANS! LANGUAGE!" Papyrus chided.

Lord Gaster frowned and reached for Sans again. "DO YOU REALLY NOT RECOGNIZE ME?"

Sans scooted away from the reaching hands, his grip on Grillby tightening as he eyed the approaching limbs suspiciously. "sorry, not a lot of depictions of you around. most of the other high gods got a lot of paintings and statues floating around, wonder why there aren't a lot of you."

Grillby's hold on Sans shifted from behind his skull to a comforting arm around his shoulders, Sans relaxed a little into the hold even as he kept his good eye on Gaster.

"IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE I'VE HAD THIS VESSEL LESS THAN A CENTURY. BUT I'M MORE CONCERNED WITH YOUR MEMORY, PAPYRUS WAS STILL JUST BARELY A TODDLER WHEN YOU BOTH DISAPPEARED, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER."

"remember what?" Sans asked, looking between Grillby and Papyrus in confusion. Papyrus held up one of his hands and pointed at it with the other. Sans cocked an eyebrow, unsure what that meant. He wasn't wearing his gloves, did that mean something? He looked back at Gaster, who was holding a couple of his own hands out. Sans grabbed Papyrus's hand and held it up to Gaster's, comparing the two. "that's… weird."

"HE'S OUR FATHER!" Papyrus burst out, practically vibrating in place. "HE'S BEEN LOOKING FOR US SINCE THE WAR!"

"no?" Sans voice just dripped with confusion. "papyrus, he's a god, we're mortals. unless we're demigods?"

"… Sans, can you make colored bullets?"

"sure, blue ones. useful when you want someone to stay put, but what does that have to do with anything?" Bullets were easy, even Sans could manage those.

"… Only gods can make colored bullets, let alone change the color of a monster's soul."

"i… we… really?"

"OH! DID HE DIRECTLY AFFECT SOMEONE'S SOUL? WHAT WAS THE AFFECT?"

"WE CAN TURN PEOPLE BLUE!" Papyrus answered eagerly.

"AH, THE GRAVITY AFFECT, I SHOULD HAVE GUESSED. VERY USEFUL WHEN YOU WANT TO PUSH AN ATTACKER AWAY WITHOUT DOING SERIOUS HARM."

"OR SLAM THEM INTO A FEW SURFACES WHEN YOU WANT TO DO MEDIUM HARM."

"that's really a gods only thing?" Sans whispered to Grillby.

"… It's a high god thing," Grillby whispered back. "… Only the most powerful gods have magic strong enough for that."

"oh my god!"

"SANS, ARE YOU ABLE TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS NOW?" Gaster asked gently.

He wasn't so sure, but he could at least try. He nodded.

"DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER?"

"mom died a long time ago. we were attacked, i think."

"SANS WAS INJURED," Papyrus added. "IT NEVER REALLY HEALED ALL THE WAY."

"… He was?"

"INJURED WHERE?"

"HIS EYE."

Sans pointed to his right eye.

"WELL I WAS GOING TO SUGGEST TAKING YOU BOTH TO MT. EBOTT EITHER WAY, BUT I THINK THE SOONER THE BETTER."

"the three of us," Sans insisted, arms tightening around Grillby's neck.

"YES, OF COURSE. THAT WAS SOMETHING ELSE I HOPED TO DISCUSS WITH YOU SOON."

"nope. nothing to discuss, we're married and having kids and that's not changing."

Grillby gave a pleased crackle as he scooped Sans up into his arms. Sans happily nuzzled into his husband's neck.

"I WOULDN'T DREAM OF SUGGESTING OTHERWISE. BUT FOR NOW, IF YOU WOULD JUST FOLLOW ME." Gaster led their group through the inner court's entrance, only as they passed through it a weird darkness that made Sans's head spin fell over them. The darkness and accompanying dizziness passed quickly, but when Sans looked around them it was to find themselves in a completely different place.

They were outside now, standing under an overhang supported by stone pillars. Before them was a short set of wide stairs leading up to a wide set of stone doors with the delta rune emblazoned on them. The doors opened, allowing the buttery light within to spill out and halo the pair of tall, fuzzy monsters now standing in the doorway. They walked down the stairs and smiled warmly at their small group.

"Gaster, my friend! Did you find the cause of that disturbance?" The taller of the two asked in a deep voice. The crown perched between his curling horns a give-away to just who had come to greet them.

"HELLO ASGORE, TORIEL. AND INDEED I DID, I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS! MY CHILDREN ARE ALIVE AND WELL."

The king and queen both gasped in delight before rushing over to meet them. Asgore was a whole head taller than Papyrus, which Sans thought was pretty surprising when most depictions of the king of all monster gods were of him towering over mountains. Then again Papyrus was actually just a little taller than their father (and that was a weird idea he was going to take a while to get used to), so maybe he was just naturally tall.

"Hello, it is very nice to meet you," Toriel greeted with a hand out for Papyrus to shake.

"How wonderful, we had feared the worst." Asgore held a hand out to Sans, "Howdy, we are all very pleased to see you again."

Sans reluctantly slipped a hand from his grip on Grillby's neck to take the offered hand.

Asgore's eyes widened. "Oh my! Gaster, you are going to be a grandfather!"

Toriel gasped in delight, practically shoving Asgore out of her way. "Really? May I see?"

Gaster smiled bashfully. "YES, IT SEEMS SANS MARRIED LITTLE LORD FIERSOME HERE."

"Fiersome? I had heard that name recently for some reason… ah, I remember now. He married a mortal, did he not?" A look of understanding came over Asgore's face as he looked Sans and Papyrus up and down again. "Oh dear, there seems to be some great confusion here."

"Well come inside," Toriel insisted, a hand at Grillby's back to gently guide him to the door. "Do not just stand around gawking, I imagine you have quite the tale to tell."

"IF WE COULD, I WAS TOLD SANS WAS INJURED AS A CHILD AND IT MAY YET STILL BE AFFECTING HIM."

Toriel clucked her tongue and shook her head, "This way, then." She led them up the steps and into an entryway a lot like the one in the mayor's home, right down to the curling pair of stairs Toriel started walking up one side of.

Sans looked up at Grillby to find him staring open mouthed at the gods leading them, while Papyrus was looking around him in wonder. He didn't understand why, aside from the godly glow the king and queen of the gods didn't really look all that different from anyone else, and the palace looked maybe a little fancier than the mayor's manor.

Toriel took them down a hallway swathed in richly colored fabrics the same way the temple was, and from there into a surprisingly cozy room where Grillby was gently ordered to sit him on a settee. Once settled, Asgore pulled Grillby and Papyrus aside while Toriel and Gaster bent over Sans.

A new monster came bustling into the room, a yellow dragon who looked to be about Sans's height. She was in the midst of tying on a smock over her clothes. "Y-you called for me?"

"Yes, Alphys, thank you for coming so quickly. We believe this young man is afflicted with a curse."

"Ohmygoodness! W-w-where?"

"THIS EYE HERE."

"Oh!" Alphys drew out the oh as she got a good look at Sans. She glanced briefly up at Gaster, then back to Sans. She fumbled under the smock to find something before pulling out what looked like a hollow sphere of polished metal that had been cut in half. "Please hold still and keep your eye wide open," she instructed as she held the half sphere up. A tiny ball of light formed inside the hollow, reflecting brightly off the polished metal. Sans quickly put out his eye light to keep from being blinded. Alphys shined the light this way and that as she leaned close to look inside his eye socket, then held it back a little to make room for the long tweezers she was suddenly wielding in her other hand.

"I can see it, just hold still a little longer… there."

Sans felt an unpleasant sensation that was half sharp stab and half yank, then Alphys was triumphantly holding up a sharp looking shard of something. It was such a deep black it seemed to absorb light, but it also glinted like glass. Not to mention it was dripping some sort of oily looking black ooze.

The world suddenly dipped and spun, there was a rushing sound filling his skull. Sans wobbled and slumped into the settee, there were suddenly all manner of hands supporting him at his back, his shoulders, his elbows. He took a deep breath. The air was sharp in his rib cage, like someone had been holding his head underwater until his soul burned and he was finally getting the first taste of air in years. There was a loud crack that sounded far too much like bone breaking, then his hands were suddenly incredibly uncomfortable. Sans eased his eyes open in time to watch a pair of yellow hands cut his gloves off to reveal two pairs of hands trapped within. Sans quickly closed his eyes again, everything was too bright. Not like too much light too bright, but more like all the colors were too strong, too sharp.

There was a soothing warmth seeping into the right side of his face. "That is good, just breathe. In… and out…" Sans found himself following the instructions of the motherly voice. "Now my child, there is still some residue in your eye, you will need to expel it."

"i dunno how."

"HAVE YOU NEVER HAD SAND OR SOME OTHER IRRITANT IN YOUR ORBIT BEFORE? IT IS JUST THE SAME."

"okay." Sans tried to do as he was told, it was easier now that the world had stopped spinning, even if it still felt a little off kilter. He tilted his head down and opened his eye sockets, giving that little extra push to get stuff out. There was the cold slide of something wet slowly dripping from his right eye, followed by warmth streaming more quickly down his cheekbones. Then his other eye started dripping too. As he watched someone take a handkerchief to his cheeks his breath hitched and a broken sob came out. It was too much, it was all too much at once. There were arms around him and a voice cooing at him, telling him it was okay and to just let it all out. He clung to the other person, he didn't even care who at this point. His emotions were a swirling mess, he felt weird and tingly, everything hurt but it was also kind of a relief, the babies were squirming harder than ever, he had no idea where Papyrus or Grillby were, and he was crying. It felt like a hundred years of pent up feelings were all trying to get out at once.

He reached a hand out (and man was that ever awkward because now he had so many of them and he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with that extra bit of coordination yet) in the direction he thinks Grillby and Papyrus are. He needs them right now, he needs something familiar to ground him.

There's a warm touch on his hand and he clings to it for dear life, pulling Grillby closer. Then Papyrus is there too and Sans somehow manages to blindly pull the two of them into sitting down and crawl into their laps. It's such a relief he ends up crying all the harder.

Eventually he calms down, the tears slowing, then stopping altogether and his breath no longer hitching and choking. He feels exhausted and wrung out and energized.

"… How are you feeling now?"

Sans looked up into his husband's face, and he looks different somehow. Sans can't explain it, he just seems so much warmer all of a sudden. Sans looks over to where Papyrus is squeezed in next to Grillby, one of Sans's hands clinging desperately to his ribs through a whole in his shirt. Did he do that? Oops. Papyrus looks different too, flatter, less real, but also deeper, like there's so much more but it's hidden. Hidden like the misty, see through pair of extra arms under his regular pair, hands clasped calmly in his lap with thumbs twiddling away a mile a minute.

"SANS? HOW'RE YOU FEELING, BROTHER?"

"tired… awake… really weird. everything's different." He looked around the rest of the room, suddenly all the others were so much taller. The gods loomed over their small group and disappeared up into the endless space above them. They also looked the exact same as when he'd first met them, a weird double vision that was messing with his head. He tried closing one eye, then the other. Yup, each eye was seeing them differently. Ugh, he felt a little sick.

"It may take a little time to adjust to suddenly having that nasty curse removed," Toriel said kindly. She held up a plate with a steaming slice of pie and a fork resting on it. "A little food may help."

The pie, at least, was the same in both eyes, even if it had that same sense of more as Papyrus. Sans carefully reached for it, trying not to fumble it as he figured out how to coordinate his extra limbs. It would be awkward trying to eat with the way he was wrapped up in two monsters' arms, fortunately Papyrus and Grillby seemed to realize this as they scooted and maneuvered until he was sitting between them, plate settled in his hands. Everyone was staring at him.

"are you really all gonna watch me eat?"

"OF COURSE, WE WERE ALL VERY WORRIED ABOUT YOU, BROTHER. NOW HURRY UP AND EAT, THERE'S SO MUCH MORE FOR US TO DO!"

Sans obediently reached for the fork, fumbled it as both his left hands were trying to grab it at the same time, then managed to bring the first bite to his teeth and absorb it. The pie was amazing, an explosion of flavors and too strong Taste as it raced through his mana lines. He coughed once, "wow."

"Do you not like it?"

"no, it's good, it's just… everything kinda… feels too much?"

"AH. THE CURSE MUST HAVE BEEN INTERFERING WITH YOUR SENSES AS WELL AS CRIPPLING YOUR MAGIC."

"It will take a while, but you will become used to it."

"vision's doubled too." He took another bite of the pie, it still tasted too much but now that he was prepared for it it wasn't so bad.

"THAT IS ALSO TO BE EXPECTED, THE CURSE WAS LIKELY AFFECTING THE VISION OF THE EYE IT WAS LODGED IN. IF THERE WAS ANY VISION AT ALL, THAT IS, IT WAS LIKELY VERY POOR. TIME AND PRACTICE WILL HELP WITH THAT."

"And perhaps a few more rounds of healing, but we can take things slowly. In fact, I should see to having rooms prepared for you."

"i wanna go home," Sans blurted out.

"SANS, IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR YOU TO REMAIN-"

"Of course!" Toriel spoke over Gaster. "You should rest at home, where you can be comfortable. Your father can bring you back here any time, and I can easily come visit you." Toriel gave him a gentle smile.

Sans nodded gratefully.

"Now eat up, you have been eating mortal food, have you not? It is not good for you nor the babies."

Sans shoved another bite of pie into his teeth.

"Although they seem rather healthy for gods raised only on mortal food." Toriel gazed slyly at Grillby, who blushed brightly and looked away.

"You gave food of the gods to a monster you believed was mortal?" Asgore asked from his seat across the room.

Grillby sputtered, sparks flying off him as his flames dimmed to a burnt orange, a few red flickers at the tips. "… Th-the children seemed to need it!"

Asgore's stern frown turned into a mischievous grin, "Well, he clearly is not a mortal, therefore you did not feed a mortal forbidden food."

Grillby's flames burned hot again, his eyes nearly lost in the white his flames turned. "… Thank you."

"there, done with the pie. can we go home now?" Sans held up the empty plate. He knew he was whining like a child, but he was so out of his depth and still feeling wrung out and shook up.

"OF COURSE, YOU NEED YOUR REST. I SHALL TAKE YOU HOME."

They all stood then, Grillby looked as if he wanted to scoop Sans up again, Sans thinks he might want him to. The world still felt strangely off balance, and trying to keep the extra arms coordinated certainly wasn't helping. Grillby took one of his hands and wrapped it around his own arm. Sans leaned into him and shot him a grateful smile.

Gaster led them out the door. This time Sans got a good look at the pitch black they walked through. It was lit up with distant stars and swirls of impossible colors, then the moment passed and they were back in Grillby's temple. They had just walked in the main entrance, at the end of the hallway the Dogi were still guarding the inner court. Their tails started wagging when they spotted the group.

"Welcome back!"

"(Did you have a safe trip?)"

"YES! IT WAS AMAZING! WE WERE AT THE TOP OF MT. EBOTT!" Papyrus gushed eagerly. "I GOT TO MEET THE KING AND QUEEN, SANS GOT A CURSE PULLED FROM HIS EYE, AND NOW I'M NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT BUT I'M SURE IT'S GOING TO BE EXCITING."

"… The first thing we're doing is putting Sans to bed, I'm not entirely sure how exciting that will be."

"I SUPPOSE HE DOES NEED REST AFTER ALL THAT. BUT… WHAT ABOUT YOU?" Papyrus hesitated as he looked up at Gaster (up, not at the version that was slightly shorter than him, weird), it seemed he had no idea what to call the guy either.

"I HAD HOPED TO BEGIN TEACHING YOU HOW TO PROPERLY UTILIZE YOUR MAGIC WHILE SANS RESTS, I AM AFRAID YOU BOTH HAVE A LOT OF CATCHING UP TO DO."

"THAT'S AN EXCELLENT IDEA! AND I KNOW THE PERFECT SPOT FOR IT, I CAN EVEN SHOW YOU THE REST OF THE TEMPLE ON THE WAY." Papyrus started walking up the hall, towards the hidden entrance to the living quarters. Gaster followed sedately behind him.

Sans found himself breathing a sigh of relief, then shoved his palms into his sockets. One hand was still clutching Grillby, so the last hand missed his socket and ended up smacking himself in the face. "uuuuuuuuuuugh."

"… You'll feel better after resting." Grillby gently tugged him through the entrance to the inner court.

"not even sure i **can** sleep right now."

"… I don't remember saying the word sleep." Grillby smiled down at him, a soft, sweet, gentle smile full of understanding. By god Sans loved him.

"yeah, okay, let's get our rest on." He let Grillby pick him up and place him in the urn, then waited as Grillby gracefully climbed in and settled down. They ended up with Grillby lounging against the shallow incline, his shoulders and arms resting along the lip while Sans was draped over his lap and chest. Grillby's arms didn't stay on the lip long, one soon wrapped around Sans comfortingly. The fact his hand ended up resting on Sans's belly was just a happy coincidence.

Sans quickly found himself drifting, not really tired enough to fall asleep but still too emotionally drained to do more than stare at the way the Eternal Flame's light danced across the wall.

Grillby shifted and pulled Sans just a little closer. "… Today has been a very long day."

Sans couldn't help a short, sharp laugh. "i'll say."

"… I can't decide if I want it to end already or if I'm dreading having to go back to business as usual once the mortals wake." And for the first time Sans and Papyrus weren't included in that.

"eh, ignore them for a day. you already got all of them on lock down."

"… I think I just might."

Sans looked up at Grillby, "i wasn't being serious."

Grillby leaned forward and dropped a quick kiss on Sans's teeth. "… And I very much was."

"but you got duties. important ones."

"… And they will keep for one day, you are more important." Grillby cupped Sans's face to stare lovingly down at him. Sans started to protest, but was cut off by Grillby's thumbs running over his teeth. "… And don't you dare say you aren't." The hand not caressing Sans's face moved down to caress Sans's round belly.

Sans couldn't help the genuine smile that spread across his face, one hand covered Grillby's on his belly, another cupping Grillby's face, one clinging to Grillby for support, the last holding him up. Sans thought he was getting better at using all these extra arms. Thank god he doesn't have to deal with his father's exorbitant number of limbs. "i'm just saying there's no rush, we got all the time in the world."

A look of surprise plastered itself across Grillby's face, which quickly morphed into utter delight. "… The rest of eternity." He shifted again, pulling Sans close so he didn't need to hold himself up on his arms. "… For as long as you'll have me, and then some."

"the rest of my life," Sans agreed before pulling Grillby in for a kiss.

* * *

AN: That was sweet, wasn't it? Look how perfect that ending is! I almost didn't want to write an epilogue. *wipes away a single tear* But I really, really like the epilogue, so tune in next week. It's going to be a short chapter, but I love it so much.


	13. Epilogue

Sans sat back on the lip of the Eternal Flame's urn, leaning on his first set of arms while the second set cradled his very heavily pregnant belly. It was kind of nice to always have at least one hand free whenever kicking started up, even if it rarely seemed to actually help.

A small procession of priests entered the inner court, ready to start the newest ceremony the mortals have added to their daily rituals. They carefully set a tray overflowing with a hearty meal on the altar. Sans had to roll his eyes, it was kind of funny how much mortals overestimated just how much gods needed to eat. But it was also sweet, and he did have growing kids to feed. Sans absently rubbed his abused belly, lots of growing kids.

Just as the sun was setting Fieri started speaking, "Lord Sans, husband of Lord Fiersome and firstborn of the high god, Lord Gaster…"

Sans couldn't hold back a snicker, just remembering Fieri's face when Grillby finally managed to get that piece of information through the oracle's thick head was enough to send him into a fit of giggles.

"… we give this offering unto you," Fieri finished.

Sans lifted his left hand, he even managed to lift the correct one this time, and pointed towards the altar. He very carefully slipped a whirlwind, very much like the trash tornado he used to keep in his room, under the tray and lifted it into the air, whirling it away. Or rather, whirling it out of mortal sight and right into his hands, it was basically the same thing Grillby did when he actually burned up his sacrifices.

The priests all bowed to the altar, and though Sans knew they couldn't see him he nodded back. They were good people. He looked the tray over, it was definitely a lot of food. Ah well, it would all get eaten so he wasn't going to waste the energy worrying about it. With another little whirlwind he tucked the tray away for later, maybe he'd use earth magic to pull it back out later just for the practice. He started idly kicking his feet, happy to stay here a moment while he waited for Grillby to finish up with closing the gates.

There was an inaudible pop as Gaster suddenly appeared. Sans grinned up at him, "hey pops, how's it hanging?"

Gaster held up his arms, from which three little hotbones doing their best monkey impersonations were hanging. "THEY'RE HANGING VERY WELL."

"Daddy!" a chorus of three little voices called.

"hey kids, were you all good for grandpa?"

Gaster leaned down to let the triplets drop safely to the floor. They eagerly ran over and started climbing up to get at Sans. A few clever little applications of gravity magic had them safely on the lip of the urn and crawling over Sans.

"We were all very good!" Ryder insisted loudly.

"RYDER TRIPPED ASGORE," Cinder said as they tugged at Sans's clothes.

"I did not! Not on purpose anyway."

"what happened?"

"WE WERE PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK," Gaster said as he bopped Ryder on the nasal ridge. "AND RYDER HID UNDER ASGORE'S ROBES."

"It was his idea," Ryder said loudly. "And Cinder hid under Toriel's robes!"

Cinder just stuck their tongue out at Ryder.

"and who's robes did you hide under?" Sans asked Ember, who hadn't spoken yet.

"alphys," they replied shyly.

"alphys, huh? bet it smelled weird in there."

"SANS! THAT'S NOT SETTING A VERY GOOD EXAMPLE FOR THE CHILDREN."

"i didn't say it was a bad weird, just… weird. she's always tooling around with machinery and things. but it sounds like you all had a very busy day, are you ready for dinner?"

There were three very eager screams of delight at the offer. Sans got down from the Eternal Flame and set about gathering his kids up. The problem was he had three excited kids to gather and only two sets of arms. Fortunately there always seemed to be an extra set when he needed it.

"… Need a hand?"

"Papa!" the kids happily chorused, then there was a fight over which got to be in Grillby's arms.

"BE CAREFUL," Papyrus warned, "YOU DON'T WANT TO HURT YOUR LITTLE SIBLING."

Ryder won, their flames flickering wildly in their happiness. Cinder pouted, the glow of their bones dimming briefly. Sans adjusted his hold to better support them and Ember on his hips.

"pops, you staying for dinner too?"

"OF COURSE, IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH TO GO AROUND."

"eh, you know how mortals are: they overfeed us."

Grillby laughed, "… You're looking a little black there."

"but daddy's bones are white," Ember said in confusion.

"yeah," Sans said in mock offense. "not a single smudge or burn on me."

Grillby leaned down and planted a kiss on Sans's head. "… There, all fixed."

The triplets giggled, though Cinder sneered, "GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!"

"YES, VERY GROSS!" Papyrus said with a wide grin. "YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO WASH THAT OFF."

"nah, think i'll keep it for a little while. proof that he loves me."

That earned Sans several side eyes as well as a few giggles.

"oh look, we're here." A quick peek through the door showed the temple's kitchen was empty. Ember and Cinder shimmied from Sans's hold to go running in, pushing each other as they scrambled for the best seat at the long table. Ryder tried to do the same, but Grillby wouldn't let them down.

"Awww… Papa! Let me down, Cinder's gonna hog the best spot again!"

"… You don't want to sit with your papa?" Grillby looked down at Ryder with the biggest puppy dog eyes.

Ryder paused, looking up at Grillby. "I wanna sit with Uncle Papyrus."

Papyrus froze from where he was pulling down plates and gasped in delight, two hands cupping his face while the other two kept a careful grip on the plates. "AND YOU WILL! HAND THEM OVER, FIERSOME!"

Grillby laughed and handed Ryder over.

Sans found himself lingering in the doorway, watching as his family went about setting the table, the children fighting over seating arrangements, Grillby and his brother or father nudging each other while egging on the children. He couldn't help smiling so wide it almost hurt. As if not to be left out, the latest addition to the family started kicking up a fuss in his middle. Sans laughed and gently ran three hands over his belly. Life was wonderful right now, but the future was looking brighter than ever.

"SANS, WE ARE ALL SET," Gaster called, motioning to the empty space between him and Grillby with one hand while cuddling Ember in his lap with three others.

"YES, BROTHER! WE'RE JUST WAITING ON YOU NOW."

"alright, i'm coming." Sans ambled over to the table, summoning their dinner with a little whirlwind on his way. Gaster and Papyrus started serving the meal while Grillby helped him into his seat. "hey," Sans said to Grillby.

"… Yes?"

"i love you."

"… And I love you, for the rest of our lives."

Sans sealed it with a kiss.

* * *

AN: The end!

So there were a few hiccups here and there, but overall I'm happy with how this came out. At the very least we hit most of the plot points I wanted to, and almost enough cuddles and domestic Sansby fluff. But let's face it: never enough cutesy OTP cuddles. And even if this story isn't as good as it could be, I learned a lot while writing it and that will hopefully show in the next story.

Speaking of, as of writing this one of the busiest seasons is starting up at work. I've also been transferred from the location I was trained at and been working at for the last three years to the one in downtown. I've decided the sanest thing to do is to take a hiatus from writing until that's over and I've had a chance to settle. I don't know when I'll start posting the next story, but when I do it will be because I've written enough to be confident in keeping up a weekly update. I may still be posting one shots or short stories, the hiatus is mainly turning off the daily writing obligation on my life management app, I'm not going to force myself. So hopefully I'll see you all soon! *blows everyone kisses*


End file.
